Stars
by VictoriaVamp
Summary: Ireth is a elf that finds herself thrown from her homeland, sold into slavery, and is rescued by a group of dwarfs on a mission to take back their own homeland. But what should happen when two certain brothers both fall in love with the elf? Ireth will battle with the ocrs that threw her into slavery but she will also have to pick between the boys she had fallen for. FilixOCxKil
1. Chapter 1

I would have been there, I would have fought side-by-side with my family, but they said that I was too young. They told me that because I was not at maturity, that I would have to stay back with my brother's mother, with my people, they said that I would be better off if I stayed at home. My half brother, Elrond, told me that I must stay back, that it would be me who would lead our people if there was an attack on our homeland of Arvernien. They were horribly wrong when they marched off to help the dwarfs on the Mountain halls, to protect them and help to save their home. What they did not know is that they would not be allowed to fight, they would be sent back to find that their home would be gone. Men that where left murdered, only the most beautiful women and children taken, the others left for dead.

I was one of the lucky ones – if you would call it lucky. I was only fourteen at the time, though I seemed like I was at least twenty to the orcs that had taken us. I was one of six that were chosen, that were good enough to be kept alive. The one mother that I knew, Elrond's mother, had her head ripped off right in front of me. I wore her blood on my face for the next week. I still have no idea where the hell they took us, all I know is that I was the leader and also the youngest. We were well fed, though I usually gave my food away to the weaker girls, I Ireth daughter of Eärendil and a dwarf of all creatures, was a leader of a group of scared elves that looked to me for guidance. All I could do was try and calm them day after day. Until we were taken taken to an old run down inn run by men.

We thought that there must be something wrong, that they would be able to help us, that they would come to our aid. But we were wrong and should have known that the hearts of men are easily corrupted. They were only the face of the inn, on the outside they ran it for a pretty penny, while the orc's did all the real work. Bringing in woman to make sure that they had enough people to work the men and make sure that they would stay the night. The others were almost double, some triple my age, they all had husbands that were waiting at home for them, loving and would be ready to see them if and when they returned from war.

Year after year passed, we heard whispers of the fact that the war had ended without the help of elves and believed that all of our men, or family members, my brother, must have all died before they had gotten there. It brought most of the women into a deep depression and sent most of them over the edge. Some passed over. But years still passed and slowly I made my way up and up the charts of working at the inn until I became the master of the inn's favorite elven girl. From this I was allowed to sleep in longer, I was not _forced _to do any chores – though I still did help the others with as much work as I could get away with – I wore the best clothes that all of the orcs and men alive could bring back. The inn master tried to make me feel as queen-like as he could. But I was in pure hell the whole way through. That is. . . until a band of dwarf's, a wizard, and a hobbit, came into the inn.

" Well look at this odd couple coming in." Nátulcien, a girl only a few years older than me who had been brought in the raid before mine, said in elfish.

" Allow me to handle this one." I said with a smile as I looked at myself one time in the mirror, placing my hair in front of my ears.

" Can I get any of you something to drink?" I asked with a big smile as they all looked over at me. I swear the younger ones mouth's dropped to the ground when they saw my outfit, which only made me giggle, but just for a second.

" A pint," one of the dwarf's, an older one with a stern look, said from the back.

" One pint, alright anything-"

" For all of us." He growled back.

" Alright then, let's see that will be fifteen pints. Anything else?" I asked, still trying to keep up my smile.

" Could I actually have a small glass of your finest wine? If you have any here." The wizard asked.

" I'll get you the finest that we have in the back." I said with a smile as I turned and walked to the back.

" Big spenders out there, wouldn't you say?" Nátulcien asked.

" Very big. Get me the best wine that we have the in back. We have a wizard in the inn." I said with athe smile as I looked back out.

They were tried. Their journey had just begun and they were already out horses and now had to walk the rest of the way on their journey. Their. . . their journey to. . . back to their mountains. Their home. They had a battle there, the ones that were old enough to know about it, old enough ti even fight. A dragon had been there, had taken over their kingdom and then orcs. It was horrible, the blood, the bodies that they had to climb over just to fight the enemy. These were all second, maybe even third-handed memories, there were somethings that did not match up, did not _look _right. Then there was something worse. Elves watching from afar, the older stern man at the table screaming and begging for help from them and all they did was walk away. I was in such shock that I did not notice that Nátulcien had placed the tray of glasses into my hand, in the shock it all dropped from my hand and crashed onto the ground.

" I will be killed for this." I whispered as I was still in shock as I looked back at the dwarfs to see where the memory was coming from, one of the younger ones, the one with no facial hair. Kili, nephew of the stern man. . . Thorin Oakensheild. Enemy of the pale orc. They needed to get out of here quickly. They were in terrible danger here. I instantly dropped to the ground and started to pick everything up as quickly as I could.

" You can say _that _again." The inn master said as he pulled me by the hair up.

" _You must leave this inn Thorin Oakensheild, rightful king of __Erebor, there are orcs in the back and if they find that you are here, they will call for the Pale orc. Leave now, through the backdoor. Quickly!" _I placed into his mind as I was bring dragged through the doorway. Nátulcien let out a scream that sent all of the men onto their feet. I was being drug into the back as they all took out their weapons.

" _Which way to the back?" _Thorin finally replied with but I did not know who got the answer, all I knew was it was not Thorin.

" _Go through the kitchen. The cooks are all away and the Inn master will be busy with me. You will have a clear shot. Take it and run." _I begged as I was thrown to the ground, hitting pots and pans the whole way down.

" You are going to wish that you had never been born, _girl_." The inn master said with a sick smile as he pulled one of the knives off of the cutting board and slowly coming towards me with it.

" I have wished that since the day that I was born, you will prove nothing that I have not already known. I beg you to try and show me differently." I said regaining all of the will and grace that I have had all of my life.

I could feel the rip of my shirt being cut from the bottom up. The sound of cotton being ripped from one end to the other. I thought about screaming, but it could send an alarm up to the orc's in the back and then the men would never get out of here like they needed to. I could feel a soft tear coming from my eyes as the knife started to go for the short skirt that I was wearing. All I could do was hold back all of my tears and close my eyes tightly. I could hear the sound of clothing tearing, the noise of the knife getting closer and close to my tights. I was so scared at that moment that I could feel my body trembling.

" You were a good girl while it lasted. But now you have to learn that when a girl is bad, that she has to be taught as lesson. Now, be a good girl and take this like a good girl should." He whispered into my ear as he placed the knife to my cheek and dug in ever so lightly. I had to keep myself from letting out a scream.

" Let her go right now!" A man yelled from behind as the Inn master looked away for only a moment, but it was a moment long enough for my to twist his arm and try to take the knife from him.

" You were supposed to run!" I said as I took the knife from the Inn master's hand.

" I have never been one for taking order's _too _firmly." The brother of Kili, Fili, said.

" Fool!" I hissed.

It was my mistake to keep my eyes off of the man for more than a moment because he had wrapped his arm around my neck, pulled my arm up to my own neck and had the knife right there, piercing into my skin, sinking in deep. My eyes watered and I could feel the breath of a small scream coming from my mouth. I was a fool for starting to forget all of the fighting that Elrond had tried to teach me, all of the basics of war that he had placed into my mind.

" Put your weapon down and she does not get hurt." The Inn master hissed.

" Run you fool!" I hissed as the knife sunk deeper into my throat and I let out another noise.

" Now!" The Inn master said as Fili put down his sharp sword.

" Kili! Now!" Fili yelled and within the second I was on the ground the Inn master below me and the knife still barley in my neck.

I felt dizzy, I felt dazed, and from what I knew I could not stand or do anything. All I did was stare up at the ceiling that I knew too well. All of the nights that I would stare at it and try to see all of the stars and the mother I knew would teach me all about. I had not been allowed outside since the day that they drug me in here. They kept us in the kitchen through the night. I wondered if I were dead, for Kili had killed me instead of the Inn master. Inside I almost hopped that he had done that, he had heard my plea and taken pity on me. But that was too easy and soon enough the two brothers were rushing over and picking me up from the ground, lifting me into one of their strong arms and trying to rush me out the room.

" Wait!" Nátulcien begged as she placed her hand onto my shoulder.

" We cannot bring another, Thorin will kill-" Kili started with.

" I am not asking you to bring me with you. I would never ask of that from a dwarf. But she will need new clothing, something to get her through with where ever you are going. Give her to me for only a moment and I will dress her properly. She will die in those clothes." Nátulcien hissed as she tried to take my body from them.

" From what we have just seen, I do not think that I will allow you to go anywhere with her. We will follow." Fili hissed as Nátulcien sighed so heavily that it made me smile a little as she brought them into where we would dress for the night.

" Iaurfâniel, give me your warmest clothing that you have and you Dolenyulmaiel give me one of your lighter clothing." Nátulcien hissed at the girls as she went to her wardrobe and took our something and wrapped it around my body as she placed me on the cold floor and started to redress me.

" You are getting out of here my dear Ireth, please be safe with the dwarfs." Nátulcien whispered as she gave me a soft kiss on the forehead and nodded for Fili to pick me back up.

" There are still my people you know." I whispered with a smile as the warmth of Fili took over my body and I curled right into it.

" She is freezing." Fili said in almost a panic.

" We need to get her to Gandalf!" Kili hissed.

" Hurry! Thought the backdoor!" Nátulcien lead them all the way through, making up excuse after excuse when she met up with any man. I could feel my body slowly going faint as we made it into the freezing and raining air.

" We are going to have to leave her here once she awakens! We are not bringing along an elf!" Someone roared.

" Thorin, she is not just an elf though, she is only _part _of a _part _of an elf, she is also a dwarf. Notice how short she is for an elf. How thick her hair is. The sharpness of the features in her face. Yes, she is a elf, but she is also like you a dwarf, one that would be much too young to know anything about the wars that you were in, let alone having been in them. And remember, she did get us out of there being orcs attacked." An elder man said as I slowly started to move up.

" I really would not do that if I were you." A voice said from above as I looked up to see that both Kili and Fili were hanging from a tree above.

" How long has this been going on for?" I asked as I looked around and smiled as I moved to my feet, finally being able to walk again, seeing the cold grass below my feet and all I could do was smile.

" You look like you have never felt grass before." Kili said and he was instantly hit by Fili.

" Will you be quite, she has been a slave for years!" Fili said in hush to his younger brother.

" It is nothing to be secretive about, Fili, I have been a. . . slave since I was fourteen, it has been a long time since I have been that age. It have not felt grass, seen the beautiful stars, felt the breeze, since I was taken to that horrid place." I said with a smile as I looked up at them.

" Well you seem to know our names. . . what is yours?" Kili said with a thick smile as he leaned out of the tree so that we were face-to-face, only his was upside down from mine.

" Ireth." I said as I smiled at him. " You are going to fall if you stay like that for much longer."

" And how do you know that?" Kili said with a thick smile.

" Maybe she has more elven powers than we know. Maybe she can see into the future." Fili said.

" Oh maybe! Can you see into the future as well?" Kili said in an over-excited tone.

" No, I just know a little about psychics and the way that the branch you have your legs wrapped around is going to break in I'd say five seconds or less." I said with a smile as, just like I said, the branch snapped and I was there, holding the head of the young dwarf in my arms, just inches from the ground.

" Amazing." He said with a smile as he looked into my eyes, making me smile harder.

" I used to also love climbing trees back home." I said with a smile.

" Oh." Kili said as he reached out and took the hair that was blocking one of my eyes and placed it behind my ears.

" How is your neck feeling today?" Fili asked, as I felt like I was awakened from a dream as I looked up at the older dwarf.

" Well I can speak and I can move it, so I believe that it is doing rather well. Is it bad?" I asked as I felt my neck to find that there was nothing there.

" Gandalf." Fili said as he threw out his hand towards me. " Would you like to come up?" There was a smile on his face that I could not resist.

But I had to do this my own way, there was no way that I was going to allow him to help me into something that I used to play on so many times before. Now, it was unladylike and really unelflike for me to still be climbing up trees and playing around like I was still a child. Though I still felt ddeep down inside that I never really got out of my childhood, I was still Ireth the fourteen year old somewhere deep down inside, not all of that girl had died. As I took a firm grasp of the sturdy branch that Fili was on, I used all of the strength in my upper body to not only pull me up and onto the branch, but to twist me around so that I was sitting next to Fili, face-to-face with him when I landed gracefully.

" Wow." Fili said lightly as he looked over at me.

" Like I said before, I used to climb trees a lot as a child." I smiled as I stood on the branch and started to make my way up higher and higher into the tree. " What? Are you boys scared of heights? I thought that adventures had to be brave." I said with a smile as Fili instantly got up and onto the branch and Kili got a running jump and flipped into the tree. " That's more like it." I said with a smile as I made my way to the very top of the tree and poked my head out of the leaves to see the stars above.

" Breathtaking aren't they?" Fili asked as he only stuck his upper body through the brush and branches.

" I have missed them for so long." I smiled as I looked up to see all of the stars in their beauty, ageless and never changing.

" Where is she? Kili! Fili! Where did the elf go?" Thorin's thundering voice boomed from below.


	2. Chapter 2

There was nothing more that I could do as both Kili and Fili tried to keep me in the tree and tried to climb down first but swing from branch to branch, getting lower and lower as I moved quicker than the two boys, hitting the ground right in front of the kings strong frame. He did not seem shocked, did not seem to flinch at all as I stood there in front of him with a soft smile on my face. Thorin had a scowl on his face that seemed like it would never come off. I could understand why it would not as long as I was in his general area. I lowered my body to bow to him, ever so lightly, and when I rose the scowl looked more like a just a frown. That made it a little better.

" What is your name?" Thorin asked.

" I am Ireth." I said with a smile, it felt good to tell people my _actual _name.

" Where is your home?" Thorin asked in almost a hiss.

" I have no home now. It was destroyed and taken from me. I do not know if I have a home." I said looking at the ground. " War took me from my home."

" Come. Sit. Explain." Thorin said as he turned his back to me and started to walk through the woods.

" Well, this is better than I thought it would be going." I said with a sigh as I looked up to see the tree-covered sky.

" And how did you think that this would be going?" Kili asked with a smile on his face, a laughter in his voice.

" Well one of two ways really. I could be walking in the woods alone by now, wondering the world to see what I could find, which would never end well. Or. . ." I did not want to think about the other way, it seemed more likely and could still happen if I said the wrong thing. Which I was known for doing.  
" Or. . .?" Kili said as he moved in closer, wanting to know.

" I guess that you will have to find that out later." I said with a faint smile as we moved through the woods to a campfire where the rest of the company was waiting. I started to feel awkward as they all looked up with scorn in there eyes, deep frowns on their faces. I was unwelcome.

" Ireth, meet our company. Ori, Dori, Nori, Bofur, Bifur, Bombur, Oin, Balin, Dwalin – you of course already know Kili and Fili – and Bilbo." Gandalf said with a smile on his face as he took his place on a log near the fire. Fili and Kili took me to the other side of the fire, near the Hobbit, and Thorin sat on the other side of the fire, near Gandalf.

" So, tell us your story, Ireth half-elf from the Inn." Thorin said with a smug look on his face. " Tell us about the war that took you from your family to the Inn that we found you in." He thought that this would be fun.

" _You. _You want to know about my story?" I let out a small laugh. " It began with the men – and some very brave woman – going off to help in a war. We knew that it would be bloody, we knew that some would die, but my people also knew that there were some out there that needed help and we were not going to ignorethe call. I, being the fool hearted fourteen year old girl that I was, wanted to go so badly. But no, I was left to govern my people. It was like I became queen. Yes, it was over the woman and the children that could not and did not go to war, but still, they all looked to me for guidance.

"Days passed and we started to worry about them. Knowing that at any time we would hear that they had all been killed or that a raid had happened while they were marching to battle. But something much worse had happened. War came to us instead. We could not fight, most had not picked up a weapon all of their lives. Orcs started to take our lands from us, killing whoever came in their way. I was awoken by the sound of a skull hitting my window and breaking through it, a small boy's head." This chocked me up, there had been so much blood spilling from the boys head onto the floor. " He was only a child. But there were some who fought for the lives of our people. We fought like warriors, battling to our last breath for as long as we could. Many of the women were captured. What men had been left behind were killed right there on the spot like livestock. They picked from us the most beautiful. Who they thought would be the _best _to fill out duties wherever they were sent. The youngest, the beautiful, if you were nether of those, you were no good.

" They killed the woman that were no good. Like my mother. They made me watch as they put her on her knees feet from me," I the memories were washing in front of me now, I was back at that moment, I could hear myself screaming at the top of my lungs and being kicked in the back of the head and hitting the ground so hard in made my world spin. I wrapped the jacket that was around me body in closer to myself and pulled my legs to my chest. " I begged, I pleaded, I did everything that I could to make them not her hurt, she was already gone in so many ways. They ripped her head off. Right there and then took me and a few others out of our homeland. Burnt it to the ground and sent us to be slaves. So there's my story. Word for word. From a war elected Elven queen becomes a slave to orcs and men." I said looking over the fire to Thorin, whose face had changed completely.

" What war did the men go to?" Bilbo Baggins asked from the other side of Kili. It made me smile, just a little.

" They went to help the people of the lonely mountain fight off orcs and to help them regain their homeland back. I thought this whole time that they had been killed in battle or that if some of them had come back that there was no way for them to come and find me and the other girls." All I could do was laugh, just a little. " Only to find out that an Elven king told them that they would not fight with the dwarfs. They never even made it to the battleground. My people would have fought side-by-side to help."

" Are you sure of this?" Thorin asked from his side of the fire, all of the dwarfs looking from him to me.

" My brother fought with the last alliance of Men and Elves and would have fought with you and your army till the last dwarf stood and the last orc was slain." I said through my teeth, looking Throin dead in the eyes. " My people are not cowards as Thranduil and the woodelves." I spat.

Thorin took a look into my eyes that felt like he was searching deeper inside. All I could do was stare right back into his eyes and tried not to go into his mind. He looked for quite a long time while the others all sat around and most likely looked from face back to the other face again and again wondering what was going on between the two of us. I honestly did no know what was going on between the two of us either, all I knew was that I was not going to be the first person to drop this eye contact. Was be summing me up? Was he trying to find out what kind of person I was from a look? I did not know what he was trying to do, all I did know was that I was not going to be the person to drop this contact. No, Thorin would have to do that.

" How long do you think that they can keep this going on for?" Fili asked from behind me.  
" I think that a fly landed on Uncle's eyes and he still has not yet blinked." Kili replied with and this made them both laugh like children.

" We should all get some rest, tomorrow we move on. If you, Ireth, would like to come along, then you may. I hope that you are experienced with weapons." Thorin said as he moved from the fire to the grounds that were around the fire.

" More than you will ever know." I said with a smile as I finally looked around the group to see the shocked look on each of their faces. I did not know then, but these would all become the first real friends that I would have.

I awoke to find that the fire was out and that all of the dwarfs, the wizard, and the hobbit were all asleep along the fire. I had been the last one to fall asleep by a tree between Kili and Fili while they were talking to the Hobbit, Bilbo. I smiled as I noted that I was being stuffed in a sandwich between the two brothers. I had an elbow going right into my stomach and a knee that was wrapped right over my waist and wrapped to my bum. But for some reason I did not mind that I was between these two men, it felt like they were still trying to protect me and keep me warm, they did not seem really like men to me. But still I moved the body parts away from my frame and somehow moved from the sandwich I was in to find that Bofur was on watch.

" Where are you going off to this late in the night, Miss Ireth?" He asked with his tone of concern.

" I know that there is a stream a south a little bit away from the campsite and I would love to be able to get clean. It has been quite some time since I have had the chance to fully bathe. I am also thinking about making something." I said with a smile as I looked around. Yes, this would be the right place to man one.

" Make something, Miss Ireth?" Bofur asked.

" A weapon." I smiled at him as I started to walk into the woods that were around, the wildlife of the night starting to make noise.

" We have plenty of weapons." Bofur said and I could tell that he was smiling and laughing at me.

" But only one of the weapons that I use so well." I smiled back at him as I looked over to Kili, his specialty was what I had known since I could pick up a bow.

" Oh, I understand now. But please be back in an hour. I _will_ get worried." Bofur said with a rather concerned look.

" I will be back as soon as I can. Please, Bofur, if you get too concerned you may send someone to look for me. Just please, if they find that I am close to the river, make sure that they call out to me before coming to look." I smiled as I started to walk into the woods, letting all of my senses lead my way through the woods.

The water was cold to my body, but every inch that I moved in deeper and deeper felt amazing on my body. It was like I was washing away all of the years in that hell hole that I had to call a home like place. To all of the man that came through and tried to think that they could have their way with me. All of it was going downstream as the dirty and muck started to wash off. A few times a doe or a fox would come along the stream and would stop dead in their tracks as they saw me there. But I was nothing like when the two dwarfs came to the river, still half asleep from most likely just waking up, to find me there, washing out my long hair. Naked.

" Kili! Fili! What in the world are you doing here?" I yelped, trying to cover my body in the river.

" Miss Ireth!" Kili said as he instantly turned around.

" We. . . we didn't know that you would be here!" Fili said as his mouth dropped to the ground.

" You did not see the clothes that were hanging from the trees? You did not hear me? Did Bofur not tell you that I would be here?" I hissed as my hair covered the parts my now freezing chest that needed to be covered.

" Bofur? He went to sleep almost a half hour ago I would say now. Ori is on watch and we – like always – have been sent out to find a meal for us, which ran across this river." The doe.

" Hand me my dress." I hissed as I started to move from the water and Fili handed me my dress as the dark night covered my body. " And turn around." I said as Fili laughed but did what he was told. " Your brother acts like he has never seen a woman before in his life." I whispered directly into Fili's ear and I could almost see the trembles of my voice going through his body.

" I doubt that he has." Fili said with a thick smile on his face as he nudged his brother.

" I doubt you have either." I smiled as I pulled my dress over my body, forcing it over the wetness that came from the water. Fili was left speechless as Kili laughed into the darkness.

" Well now our meal has gotten away." Fili hissed as I started out to the trees around, grabbing the rest of my clothing that was hanging from the visible trees.

" With the way that you boys walk, I am surprised that you even found the doe. Would you like help hunting this morning?" I asked as I pulled on an overcoat.

" How would you be able to help us? You do not even have a weapon!" Fili hissed as I pulled my newly made bow out of a tree.

It was something that we had been taught when we were young back at home. Elrond was the one that taught me how to make one from just things that could be found in the woods around our home. It was, as he said, for when there was no other hope for finding a true bow. He has spent weeks trying to weak me how to make the perfect one out of nothing but the land and the world that was around us. It was almost funny how he would never give up on me only because I was his kid-sister that no one had expected. Finally, after what most likely felt like a century to both myself and Elrond, I had been able to make the perfect long bow out of wood and the hair of the animals that had died in the land within an hour of getting all of the materials. It was something that one does not forget, I had not forgotten any of the steps that my brother had drilled into my brain, not even for a second.

She was not the prettiest of bows that I had seen in my time, but she would still kill with the best of them in the world. It was a mahogany tree branch that I had to use all of my body weight to take down, meaning that it would not break easily. It had taken a while to be able to wield it into the shape that I had needed, using whatever I could find to make it into a perfect long bow. Then I had used the tail of a horse that I had found almost a mile away from the campsite to make the other side of the bow with. It was not the best thing to use, but it was just springy enough that it would work and I would be able to use it for hunting and game but also to be able to protect myself and the company if need be. I had shot of a few rocks and whatever I could find to make sure that it would work and next I would have been making arrows back at the campsite, if these boys would have not come up and surprised me.

" Where did you get _that _from?" Kili asked as he tried to take it from me.

" I made it." I hissed as I put it up and over my head and around one of my shoulders so it would hang there.  
" _When_?" Kili asked as he stared at it.

" About an hour ago." I said with a smile as I heard something coming in the distance. It was big, whatever it was.

" Does it work? Fili asked as he looked at it as if it was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen.

" Quite." I said as I listened to the land, it was coming for the water. I instantly took the bow off of my body, grabbing one of Kili's arrows out of his container of arrows and took aim across the river and shot the arrow. There was a splash so loud that the sound of birds chirping and flying away could be heard from one side of the river all the way upstream. With a smile I looked over at Fili, whose mouth was nearly on the ground. " I would say that it works swimmingly. You boys clean in and get ready for a rather _amazing _breakfast." I smiled as I wrapped my bow around my body and started to move back to the water.

" What did you kill?" Kili asked as both boys chanced me from behind.

" A moose." I smiled as I could see the antlers come the water.

" _Right._" Kili said as came up beside me. " I can't shoot a moose from that far away, let alone-" I moved his head right to the spot that the now dead carcase was laying.

" Well then maybe you have to practice shooting more." I smiled as Fili laughed and started to move across the river and pulled the moose all the way to our side.

" It's _huge!_" Fili said as he walked around my kill.

" I think that it would be able to feed fifteen people for a few good days. Meaning that you boys can catch up on your sleep for the next few mornings." I smiled as I looked around from Kili to Fili's face to see that they were in shock. " Clean it up and bring the meat back to the campsite. Let the rest of the carcase move downstream so that no animals follow you back and I will cook it." I smiled as I moved back through the woods.

" She's amazing." Fili whispered, forgetting the hearing of elves.

" She is so much more than that." Kili said, still in a state of awe. All I could do was smile and laugh, ever so lightly, as I moved back to the campsite.


	3. Chapter 3

All of the boys seemed to be so thrilled to wake up and have something that was cooking and almost done when they awoke. I tried to made sure that I could use everything that I could find from the area that we had been around to make the meal a little better. All of the skills that I had learned when I was a child about what foods worked with one another and what plants to eat and which ones would make the best stews. I took what I could from the grounds around to make a good stew. Something that I did not fully know how to make, but I mean there was no other way to make something like moose taste too well when you didn't have very much of a variety to cook with. The smell of the stew awoke the hobbit first.

" Good morning, Mister Bilbo. Sleep well?" I said with a smile as I made my final of twelve arrows.

" As well as I can sleep while being on the ground around fourteen others. What- what are you making?" He asked with a small smile on his face as he moved closer to the pot.

" Oh- some stew for everyone. I found the pot in a cabin that seemed like it was burnt down about a mile off from here and dragged it back here. " Moose." I said with a smile as he looked into the pot to see all of the different plants and vegetables I was able to find.

" This looks and smells amazing!" Bilbo said with a wide smile now as he walked around the pot.

" I hope that it will taste just the same." I smiled as I placed my stirring stick that I had been using time after time in a nearby tree to keep it off of the ground and sat back on the ground near the tree. " It should be done in about ten, fifteen minutes at the most." I smiled as Bilbo came and sat down next to me near the tree. " How has your journey been with this company, Mister Bilbo?" I asked looked down at the half-ling.

" I would say that is has been pure hell, but then I know that would not sum it up correctly because this adventure has been the most fun and excitement that I have _ever _had. Honestly I think that they think that I am just here for entertainment or that I have no purpose here, but I want to help because that's what I think is right." Bilbo said as he looked up at me.

" I think that it would be best to give them all the help that they can get. Even if they do not want it or know that they need it just yet." I smiled down at the hobbit as he took out a pipe from his pocket and lit it.

We sat back and watched as the company of dwarfs all slept so soundly in their own places all around the campsite and just took back all of the sounds of the ending night. Soon we would be on the move again, Bilbo and myself would be the outcasts of the whole company because we were a different species than the rest. Neither of us had shown our strengths in the group and had not pulled enough weight. I knew that I wanted to change this and to have everyone look proudly at me and to not think of me as just another enemy. I think that Bilbo wanted to do the same. I looked up through the smoke from the fire and looked through the the fading light of the stars, wondering if there was any way for this to end well. When I rose and stirred the pot one last time I could hear the grunts of almost all of the men waking up in unison. Thorin hitting both Kili and Fili in the back of the heads as he hissed some things into their ears.

" We did!" Fili groaned as he rose, just a little to face his uncle.

" But Ireth shot it and made breakfast." Kili hissed but did not move his head an inch.

" Told us to go back to bed." Fili said with a smile as Thorin whipped his head around to see me stirring the pot full to the brim with food.

" Good morning." I smiled at him as he got up and instantly looked into the pot as the others rose.

" What is this?" Thorin said with almost a smile as he look up at me.

" Moose stew with potatoes, carrots, and some herbs that I could find around the area." I smiled as I saw the look of shock coming onto the kings face as he looked back down into the pot.

" _You_? Shot the beast?" He asked.

" With my own bow." I smiled as I pointed to the newly made weapon.

" Amazing." Ori said as he looked around to see the pot.

" And Kili and Fili also did help, the gutted and did all of those things to the animal while I got us something to cook it with and found something to eat out of as well. I doubt that anyone wants to try and eat stew with their hands. We should have enough moose leftover to keep us going for a few good days." I smiled as the rest of the company came and looked over at the stew as if it was made out of gold. " So who wants to eat?" I smiled as instantly their was a roar of voices.

Meal time went over amazingly, all of the men loved the meal that they had and even Gandalf said that he liked my cooking. I had learned much of my cooking skills working in the Inn all of those years, making sure that the stew was just the way that the Inn Master liked it, making sure that all of the seasonings where firmly crushed and that there was just enough in each and every pot. Though most of the meats that we said we had were really just whatever we could find laying around, we in the kitchen did make sure that it was some of the best meals that we could produce.

" What's that from?" Fili asked as he sat down from getting his third helping of stew, pointing down at my wrist and all I could do was look up at him.

" It's. . . it's my branding. To mark and to allow anyone t hat comes across me that I am a slave of the pale orcs." I whispered as Fili shot up in shock.

" That creature is dead." Fili hissed as Kili crowded in to know what we were talking about.

" Oh no, he is not. I have only seen him once and I can tell you that he is alive and well. Missing an arm, but he is alive." I whispered as I looked over at Thorin who was talking with Gandelf and some of the others.

" But it does not look like a branding." Fili said as he took the whole conversation away from the orc as he took my wrist into his bid, strong hands.

" It glows my number when I am around him." I whispered as he ran his finger over the red of the marking. I can still remember the burning as they marked me with it.

" That's horrible." Kili whispered as he looked from his brother to myself. " Is there a way to take it off?"

" I doubt it, maybe some really strong magic could do it but-"

" Gandalf! Gandalf!" Both Kili and Fili said as they lifted me from my spot on the ground and brought me right over to the wizard, who had stopped mid-bite to look over to the brothers who had me by both arms.

" Will you put me down! Right now!" I shouted as both boys dropped me at once at the wizard's feet. " Ow!" I hissed.

" What are you doing to this poor girl now!?" Gandalf hissed as he helped me to my feet.

" Can you use your magic to take that off?" Fili asked as he turned my wrist over to show my markings.

" It's my slave number." I said as I looked away from the men, feeling ashamed of myself.

" I think that I can, I will need a few items that I think that I can get – along the way. It will take me a few hours to be able to get all of the herbs and items that I need, but I think that I can take this branding right off of your body permanently." Gandalf said with a smile as he looked back to the boys.

" Now that you boys have harassed this poor girl enough, you both can clean this whole area put while we get to packing." Thorin said to both Kili and Fili as they muttered some words but did what their uncle told them to do. With a smile I turned and moved back to my little spot on the outside of the group as I started to put all of my arrows into a homemade basket that I had been working on. The day had not even started yet and I was already tired.

" Do you want to put some of your items into my bag, I have some extra room if you want to kind of stuff it on the top." Bilbo said with a smile as he moved over to me, knowing that I did not have anywhere to put my extra clothing.  
" I would really appreciate that, thank you Bilbo." I smiled as he placed his bag onto the ground beside of my and allowed me to fill his bag with all of the things that the girls had given me before I had left.

And then we were off for another day of traveling. It seemed like nothing to me, who was used to being on my feet from sunrise well into the nighttime. I spent most of it either talking about the life that Bilbo had back at home and wanting so desperately to know what Bag End looked like and how much I would have loved to be able to go there with him when this was all over with; the other half of the time I was talking with Fili and Kili when they were not guarding us. Kili wanted to know everything that I knew about shooting and about where I had learned, things that I would not be able to teach him even if we were not traveling, while Fili just wanted to know all of the good things that had happened in my life, he wanted to know more about my story. All I could do was laugh and try to talk to the both of them at once as Bilbo was simply smile and walk beside of me, listening to all of the stories that I had to tell.

Another wizard came and while he was talking with Gandalf and the others, I could tell that there was something that was horribly wrong. I could almost sense it within the wind, like there was something that was trying to warn us to keep walking. I wondered off from the group, taking the bow that was around my body and keeping it at the ready as I walked up onto a higher ground to be able to get a wider look around to see what there was around me. The highest point was a hill that was a little far away from the others as I made it up I could see that we were in deep trouble. Warg's only about a mile away from us and coming on quick were coming straight onto our trail and were coming for us and when there are wargs, there were bound to be orcs.

" Fuck." I whispered as I ran as fast as I could down the hill and right into the group. " We need to leave. Now. There are wargs with orcs riding on their back not a mile from us and they have picked up our scent. We need to leave. Now." I said as I looked back and the sound of the first wolf-like dog howled from a distance that was getting closer and closer as we spoke.

" We will never get away, that is far too close!" Ori said, I could see the panic that was each and every one of their eyes. We were doomed.

" I will cause a diversion. They will follow me and you will be able to make your way out of here." The brown wizard said as he started to move for the contraption that he had come on. The sound of howling could be heard getting closer, they were yards from us now.

" They will chase you down within seconds, it is a suicide mission." Gandalf said as he looked at his fellow wizard in disbelief.

" You have never seen a jackrabbit run then have you. Now go! All of you!" The brown wizard said and then he was off, racing the orcs off around and around as we took off.

It was a stupid mission and it would have come to a horrible ending without the leadership of Thorin, who seemed to know when to stop each and every time as the brown wizard would run the orcs right in front of us and none of them would even stop to look back. I thought a few times there that we would have been caught right then and there, that it would have been over. But something did go wrong when one of the wargs caught the scent of us and started to chase after us. There was no way that even one of us would be able to out run them, let allow all fifteen of us! It was all going downhill so fast that when we came to the mouth of a hill and hid into it, it took all that I could do to keep myself from falling right onto the ground from despair. But when we could hear the breathing of the giant wolf-like dog from above us and Thorin nodded for Kili to go out and shoot the beast, I could feel my heart drop as Fili grabbed for my hand to keep me from doing anything and held onto it as tightly as he could. I thought that Kili was a goner, but he proved me wrong as he shot the beast and the orc dead and we took off for a nearby cave that Gandalf had found. We could hear that there was something going on from the outside. But we decided that it would be best for us to stay within the cave.

There were beautiful swords of many different shapes and sizes that had been shoved into this cave long ago for who knows what reasons. But I knew that there was one thing that was for sure about these weapons, they were all made by elves and I knew that they only way to keep the dwarfs from throwing them back onto the ground that they had come from was to keep going with what Gandalf was saying about them being made my men in the first age and to keep myself from laughing at the fact of thinking that any man would be able to make a weapon like the ones that were in this cave. I picked one from the far end of the cave, a long and thin sword that seemed like it fit me perfectly as I wrapped the covering around my waist and placed the weapon into it to see that there were elven words on the leather that said Rivendale.

" Elrond." I whispered as I looked to Gandalf who was smiling as he nodded to the passage that all of the other dwarfs were walking through and instantly walked right to the middle of the pack with Kili and Fili as if to not be left behind.

" You were brilliant back there, Kili. Simply amazing." I said with a smile as I looked to him, he had a small gash on above his right eyebrow from the fight.

" That back there?" Kili laughed as he moved his body around his body like mine. " That was really nothing, wait until you see me _really _fighting." He smiled as the light from the opening could be seen and Gandalf moved to the front of the group. We were welcomed into Rivendale by a couple of guards who instantly saw me.

" I hope that I never have to see you _really _fighting." I said with a wink as he noticed that we were being lead into a city.

" Where are we?" Fili asked as he looked around to see the brightness of the rivers and the beautiful city that was in front of us.

" Rivendale." I smiled as I looked back to see our Hobbit taking all of it little by little, he was so shocked. " It's still just as beautiful as I remember it being." I smiled.

" Is there were you are from?" Fili asked as he looked at me with a smile on his face.

" On no, Rivendale would never be able to be taken over and destroyed like my homeland was." I smiled as awe were brought to the front of the land and the sound of horses could be heard coming up the walkway that we had just come from.

The dwarfs all took to a fighting stance as they threw both myself and Bilbo into the middle of the group and almost formed a circle around us as the horses moved around in a larger circle around all of us, circling around us again and again. Kili and Fili were in front of me, Fili's strong hand was around my waist to make sure that I would, as he would call it, do something horribly stupid, while Kili kept looking back to make sure that I had not somehow vanished. And that is where I saw him for the first time in so many years that it made my heart drop as he jumped off of his horse and walked right over to Gandalf without taking another look into the group of dwarfs to see one if his own kind in there. I shoved Fili's hand off of my body and started to move through the pool of dwarfs, moving around and using my body to work my way out of the group that was trying to protect me so hard.

" I think that there is someone who would like to see you." Gandalf said with a smile as Elrond's head whipped back to the group.

" Elrond!" I screamed as I broke my way out of the group and started to run for my brother.


	4. Chapter 4

" No. It cannot be." Elrond whispered as he moved down the stairs and my body collided with his as I buried my face into his armor-plated chest.

" And yet here I stand in front of you, Brother!" I could feel the tears that were streaking down my face as my brother took it into his strong hands and I could see the smile that was hiding the tears from his eyes as well.

" They thought you to be dead, they thought that you had been taken off and murdered. Sister, we all believed that you had died all of those years ago." Elrond said as he looked into my eyes in disbelief.

" Me? Go down without a fight? You seem to know so little about me brother. But is has been so long, look what age has done to you." I smiled as I saw the thin lines that were coming onto his face, the young age that had been when I had last saw him was gone and he looked much more. . . mature now then he had been before.

" And look what age as done to you, my dear sister." I smiled as I tried to tilt my head down and look at the ground, but Elrond head my face so that I could be looking at him. I could see all of the love that had never left his eyes for his only sister. " You look so much like Mother." He smiled down at me.

" Your mother or mine?" I smiled as he bent down and gave my forehead a small kiss before turning to the rest of the group, holding my hand, and moving to the company.

" They look like they have not rested well in many months. Dear Sister, how did you come across them?" Elrond asked in Elven, light enough so that the Dwarfs would not hear.

" The rescued me." I smiled as I could see the look of dread and concern washing from the faces of all of the Dwarfs, besides Thorin's.

" They may sleep here for as long as they need to regain themselves for their journey. They all must be hungry as well. We will have a feast tonight for all of them and for the return of you, my dear sister. We will have the feast tonight!" Elrond said with a wide smile but was also too loud and it started a commotion from the group.

" What did he say about us?" One yelled.

" Who does he think that he is!?" Another screamed.

" _He _is Elrond, my brother." I hissed back to the group as they all silenced as I spoke. " And he is asking if you would like a place to sleep for the night that is _not _on the ground, if you would like food that is properly cooked, and he is thanking you for rescuing me." I said as I saw a strange look come from Fili in the background, something of. . . relief? " So what do you say?" I smiled as I looked at Thorin who whispered something to another Dwarf.

" We will stay." Thorin said in his typical tone of anger filled with power.

" Oh, and a shower. You all can take as shower too." I smiled as that roared the boys right back up.

" What are you saying Ireth?" Kili yelled.

" You know you love our smell." Fili yelled back as I rolled my eyes to my brother and with a smile Elrond and myself welcomed the company into

" Make sure that there is some type of meat at this feast, they will _not _like it if there is no meat. Trust me on that one." I smiled as Elrond showed us around the breath taking waterfalls.

" How long have you been with this company of Dwarfs, sister?" Elrond asked as he looked down at me as if I was made of gold.

" A few days." I smiled as the shocked looked came to his face. " I have the powers that father as given down to all of his children and more. Brother, I know each of their names, I know what they love, who they want to become, I know just about everything about these Dwarf's without them saying a word to me. They are some of the kindest and good people that I have known for a long time." I smiled as we lead the group along a path that must have lead to where the lord would live.

" And before that? Where were you living before that?" Elrond asked in concern, _this _was what he truly wanted to know about.

" In time I will tell you that story, Brother." I smiled as I looked up at my brother and could see his mother's features so well in his face.

" Lord Elrond ." A guard said as he bowed his head.

" L-Lord?" I asked as I looked up at my brother.

" Many things have changed since you have been missing Sister, many things." Elrond said with a smile as we moved into the Lord's corridors.

Elrond tried to make sure that the boys would stay out of my room with all of his might, like any good brother would do. He wanted to make sure that I would be well fitted for the festivals as well as my company. But almost every ones of the Dwarfs had popped up in my room with one question or another about what would be happening, what they should wear, when they were gifted clothing to wear they needed help putting things on, it was rather comical to see all of them trying to get their clothing on. And finally, when I thought that I was at peace to finally get ready myself I heard another knock on the door that sent my nearly falling out of my chair because I had been so in tuned with what I had been doing that I did not hear the him enter.

" You look beautiful." Fili, fresh out of the shower, said with a smile as he entered the room, sending the necklace that I had been trying to put on flying to the other side of the gigantic sized room.

" You bastard, do you not know that you are supposed to knock before coming into a room and scaring a young girl like myself?" I hissed as moved to the other side of the room to retrieve the one of many gifts that Elrond had already given to me.

" Well I knocked, but you seemed to be too busy with your pretty new necklace to notice, so I just came in." Fili smiled as he took the pendant into his hands and looked down at it. " Beautiful gem." He smiled as he looked into my eyes.

" It's my brother's new wife's she lent it to me. . . well tried to give it to me." I shrugged as Fili turned me around and looped it around my neck, adjusting it so that it fit perfectly.

" Well it looks simply breath taking on you." Fili whispered from behind as I turned around to see him smiling at me.

" Is there something that you needed?" I smiled as I finally noticed that his shirt was unbuttoned and it left his chest bare, I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks as he noticed that I was looking.

" I do not understand how to work this. . . thing." He said as he looked down at his shirt. With a smile I took up where he had tried to do the shirt, unbuttoning all of the places that he had down it wrong and when his chest was once again unbare I smiled up and noticed that his hair was still soaking wet. t

" I see that you took a shower." I smiled as could not help but to stare at him.

" Aye, same goes to you." He said with a smile as he sat where I had been sitting by the mirror. " Usually Fili helps with the braiding part of my hair, he has the fingers that are able to do it must easier than I can." He said as I laughed and moved his hands from his hair and started to twirl and twin his hair into braids.

" Before I met you guys, I had never seen anyone with so much. . . hair before. Let alone any male with braids in their mustaches before." I smiled as I took some of his hair that I had already made into a braid and placed it on my upper lip and left it there until Fili looked up and started to laugh. " I think that I would make an amazing full Dwarf. I'd look cute." I laughed as Fili's hair fell from my face because we were both laughing to hard.

" You would be a beautiful Dwarf, just as you are a beautiful half-Dwarf." Fili said with a softer smile as he turned to me.

I did not know how to respond to what he had just said. The only people to call my beautiful before were my family because they had to think that way and all of the men that had walked into the Inn, who I knew did not think of beauty in the way that they should. But Fili was different, he did not want the things that those men had wanted, what he was saying he meant it, he was saying it from his heart. I tried to think of all of the different ways that I could reply to them and none of them seemed to be what I really wanted to say, nothing seemed to be right.

" You really need to take a lesson in braiding." I smiled as I knelt down and started to rework the braids that he had done for his mustache. Going from one to the other as I tried to keep him from laughing or talking too much because it would mess me up.

" Are you amazing at simply everything that you do?" Fili asked when finally I was done. All I could do was smile down at him as he placed his hand onto my face and smiled as he looked into my eyes with that look of gold. He started to move his body in closer to mine and I could feel my heart start to pound as if it was going to come right out of my chest, it felt like it weighted a thousand tons as he moved in so that I could feel his breath.

" Ireth! Oh- there you are brother!" Kili said with a smile as he entered my room, Fili and I both instantly moving apart from one another rather quickly.

" Kili! Ye-yes? What do you need?" I asked as I placed myself near the window, trying to catch my breath and get a hold of my head, which was spinning like crazy. I felt dizzy.

" Well firstly how long have you been in here brother? We have been looking everywhere for you!" Kili said as he nudged Fili, who looked at Kili as if he was ready to kill him. " And secondly, I need help trying to figure this out." Kili said as he looked done at his undone tie.

" I believe that you are the only person that they gave one of these to." I smiled as I moved from my place near the window to the younger Dwarf.

" Wh- what does it mean?" Kili asked as he looked down at the tie as if it was poisoned.

" Well. . . it means. . ." I smiled as I moved to the Dwarf and could see the panicked look on his face as I started to tie it. " that they most likely think that you-" I did all I could not to laugh so hard as I fitting it to his neck as he made a scared noise. " - should have been smart enough to be able to do it by yourself. I guess that they were wrong when they thought of that." I laughed as he looked rather foolish with the tie on.

" I look like a fool." Kili hissed as he looked into the mirror to see what both Fili and myself were seeing and started to burst out laughing.

" Come here, I will take it off." I smiled as Kili moved in close to my body and started to take it off.

" What are you going to be wearing to this _feast_ Ireth?" Kili asked.

" Oh a dress, I guess, something that my brother brought me to wear." I said as I pointed my head into the closet to show a beautiful pink dress.

" It will look beautiful on you. Now it is time for you to get dress. We will be right outside when you are ready." Fili said with a smile as he took his brother by the arm.

" Mostly because we do not know where to go." Kili said and all I could do was laugh as they left.

Getting into the dress was something completely different than helping the others with their outfits. I mean with them I knew that they would look just fine and that there was nothing wrong with them and that they did not care about how they looked. But these were my people, these were the people that have known me since I was a baby. I was scared that I would look into the mirror and see the bar-wench from the Inn that was a whore. There was nothing less that I wanted to see in that mirror as I turned to see something that I had not been expecting to see.

When I turned I saw someone that I had never seen before looking back at me. A beautiful young elf was starring back at me. Her hair was red as flames that fell tho her waist had small braids that were wrapped around my head with a small crown of flowers on the inside of the braids. Her face as pale as the moon. Her eyes a blue as the ocean. The beautiful necklace laying on my neck as I starred at myself in the mirror. I my breath was taking away as I looked moved closer into the mirror. I touched my face every so lightly as if I would break myself if I touched too hard and smiled as I noticed the beautiful dress falling just below my hair. It fit so well and all I could do was smile and spin around and around as I kept looking at myself in the mirror. I smiled as I moved to the door to see that both Kili and Fili were starring with their eyes as wide as scourers.

" What do you think?" I asked with a smile as Fili took my hand and spun me around in a circle.

" Wow." He whispered as he looked from me to this brother.

" You look amazing." Kili smiled as he took my by the other arm, as the boy started to bang on all of the doors for the other Dwarfs.

" Common Mr. Baggins! We are going!" Kili said as he bagged on the final door.

" Gandalf! We are-" Fili yelled to the door.

" He knows his way around Rivendale just as well as I do. Trust me, I know that he can find his way, if he is not there already." I smiled at the Dwarf as he looked back at me with his cheeks getting a rosy red.

" Well, lets go then." Nori said as he moved Fili out of the way. " Miss. Ireth, you look simply beautiful!" He said and I could feel the blood starting to rush to my face.

" You look amazing!" Ori said.

" You look better than amazing." Fili whispered as he took my arm once again as Bilbo walked out of his room with Thorin alongside him. I just starred at them both and could feel the looks that were coming from everyone else as well.

" He um- he needed help with this. . ." Bilbo said as he was trying to get words to come out completely.

" I needed help with my shirt. Or this overcoat. . . thing." Thorin said.

" Overcoat! Yes!" Bilbo said and I could see from the look that he was lying.

" Well, I guess that we are all here, shall we go?" I said with a smile as I took Fili's arm and started to move out of the Lord's chambers and into a more public area.

I could feel all of the nerves that I had back in my room come flooding back at me as I found my brother waiting for me behind a curtain that I knew lead to too many people that I had not seen in years, people that had thought I had been dead and gone for years now. I looked different, I was a different person, there was nothing that was truly alive in me that they used to know. But Elrond washed all of the fears away with a look, he smile down at me as he took me into his arms once again and I wrapped myself into his body. His scent still smelled the same as it always had been, fresh cut grass and the falling of water. Elrond took me by the hand and smiled back at everyone that was behind us and then we walked through the curtain and I could feel the pool of eyes that had stopped doing what they had been doing and just starred at myself and the company as we walked to the front of the group to a long table that had just enough room for all of us, Gandalf, Elrond and his wife, and one other person.

" It is lovely to see you once again Ireth." Galadriel, royalty among all elfs, said with a smile as she sat beside of Elrond's wife. I could feel my heart fall to the ground as she looked at me, I knew should was looking back at my past. I felt ashamed and scared of what she thought.


	5. Chapter 5

All I could do was look down a fidget with my nails as I smiled at her, I knew she was looking through my past, I knew that she did that to most people when she met them for the first time and this was, almost, the first time that we had met. Since the last time that anyone who knew me last saw me was when I was only a mere child. But she took my hands into her warn and kind hands and smiled at me as she looked at me. I moved my hair out of my face as she looked deep within my past and maybe even deeper into my soul. I have heard any things about what she could do from the whispers we had in the Inn about the people of our pasts. I looked down at my shoes as she moved my face back up to hers so I could see the soft smile that was on her face.

" You have had a hard life, Ireth." Galadriel said in her soft tone. " But you do not think of it as hard, you think of it as a way of living. The things that you have been through, the ways that you have been treated, no person, let alone elf, should ever be put through that. You are so strong and brave." She said as she placed her hand on my cheek.

" Thank you." I said smile a small smile coming to my face, I was stunned with her tone.

" But you are not going to stay here, you have ties and loyalties to these Dwarfs." Galadriel said with a puzzled look on her face as she looked over to see all of the company digging in to their feast already.

" Where they go, I go." I said with a faint laugh as I looked over to the boy. " They have protected me, I have protected them, they _saved _me. I owe them my life for that."

" Your life? That is a rather high price to pay." Galadriel said without raising her tone or really in a questioning way. More like a statement,

" They saved me from a lifetime of hell. If that means that I must give my life, then _that _is the price that I will pay." I knew that must have gotten the attention of the Dwarfs that were sitting near me because I could hear the commotion had almost silenced for a few seats.

" Tell me what it is that you will need for this quest and it will be yours." Galadriel smiled as she looked across the room to see our wizard coming in. This brought the biggest smile I had seen in a long time come from Galadriel's beautiful face.

" A bow and some arrows and perhaps some armor. That is all I need." I smiled as she nodded.

" You will have all of it." Galadriel said, the smile not leaving her face. " We have to catch up more after the festivals." And as we parted she left something in the palm of my hand.

" _Use it on your adventures."_ She placed into my head as I looked down to see it was a beautiful pedant from Lothlórien.

" Thank you, My Lady." I whispered, stunned, as I bowed my head lightly and finally took my place beside my brother on one side and Thorin on my other. " Well this will be awkward." I whispered to myself and Elrond laughed to himself.

" I did not know what you would like, so I had them make all they could think about making." Elrond said with a smile as he found me stuffing my face like the Dwarfs.

" It's really good." I smiled as I cleared my mouth to be able to act like a lady.

" You always did eat. . . differently." Elrond said with a laugh

" You mean unelf like. Well, manners are for prudes." I said and this brought a laugh coming from my other side.

" You used to say that as a child." Elrond said with a reminiscent smile.

" Said it, meant in, mean it." I smiled as I dug back into my food. " You know what this year is Brother?" I asked as he gave me a puzzling look.

" What is it, Sister?" He asked as he looked from his people back to me.

" My fiftieth birthday! It's my time to choose." I said with a smile as I reached out and took Elrond's hand.

" Choose?" Balin asked from beside Thorin.

" Since she is only half-elfs, Ireth has to choose what she wants to be when she becomes an adult. She can choose her elven side which will grant her immortality or she may pick to life a life of mortality living a life of a man or maybe a Dwarf in her case." Elrond said with a smile as he gripping tightly onto my hand. " Whatever you choose, I will still love you no matter what."

" I could not chose a mortal life. I have seen what the race of man can do to someone and I would never want to even be in the same class as those horrible creature." I hissed, I hated almost the whole race of me. " And have you ever heard of an Elf becoming a Dwarf? The fact that I exist is so flawed that I do not know if there would be a chance of me _surviving _a transformation like that, let alone, what would happen to me after that. That really only leaves me with one other choice, now doesn't it brother?" I asked as the biggest smile came onto his face.

" Oh good." He sighed out with a laugh.

" I knew that you would think that, to lose another sibling. I would never put you through anything like that ever again!" I smiled as he rubbed his finger across the top of my hand.

" _Another_?" Oin asked.

" Our brother chose the life of a man. But when it came to battle. . ." Elrond said and could not finish.

" He did not make it out of the battle because of a wound." I said as I gripping onto Elrond's hand tighter. " I believe that people have been listening in to our conversations, wouldn't you say so, Elrond?" I asked in elfish as I could see all of the heads of the people who had been listening to us pop up. Even Throin's head popped up, just a little.

" I would say so as well, Sister." Elrond said in plain words and we both laughed as the Dwarfs looked at one another with such confusion.

When finally the eating had ended most of the elfs got up and started to dance around, like they used to at all of the festivals that Mother had allowed me to go to when I was a child. I smiled and sighed as I leaned on the table and idolized over the ways that the people danced around. It had always been such an interest of mine to watch the girls spin around and around and watch how the men would lift the woman up as if they were a light as a feather. As Thorin, Balin, Gandalf, Oin, and Bilbo, all went off with Elrond with an older piece of paper, the rest of us stayed and watched the dancing that was going on. One by one the elves started to ask for the hands of the Dwarfs and one by one the Dwarfs started to accept. It was funny to see the first person to be asked being Kili because, from what I've heard, he does not have the most attractive features for Dwarfs. So when he got asked he looked so stunned that all he could do was nod.

" Um. . . Miss Ireth, would you. . . like to dance?" A voice said from behind and as I turned all I could do was smile.

" I would love to, Ori!" I smiled as I took his hand and lead him to the floor. " But I must warn you, I am not that good at it." I said as a look of relief washed over his face.

" I am not either, Miss Ireth." Ori said with a smile as we started up, right in the middle of the floor.

" You boys really must stop calling me, Miss." I smiled as he nodded and looked down at his feet to try and keep pace. " No, Ori, the trick to all of this is to _not _look at your feet. See, if you do that then you will never be able to keep pace with the tempo or your partner." I smiled as he look up at me with one of those cute little smiles. " See?"

" Wow!" Ori said and his eyes light up as he started to be able to keep pace quicker and quicker until he was finally leading me. After a few songs another elven girl asked if she could cut in and I allowed her.

" What to go Ori!" Kili, who was still dancing with his girl, cheered on.

" My brother? With a girl? Turn me around!" Nora said as the girl who was leading _him_, turned him to see his brother dancing with a beautiful elven girl.

I smiled as I thought about returning to my room for the night as the festivals continued. There was no need for me to be here while everyone else was having a good time. I had had all of the fun that I really needed for one night and thought that returning to bed and getting a full nights sleep would be best, knowing that at any moment we may be leaving once again for the quest forward. I smiled as I passed each and every member of my company as I started to make me way towards the curtains that would lead me back down towards the area where we had been left to sleep.

" Trying to escape from your own party already?" A dark voice said from behind as made my way out of the curtain to come face to face with Thorin.

" Uh, yes actually. I was going to return to my bedroom to get some rest. With it having been a long day and with many long days ahead I thought it would be best to get as much sleep as I could while we have the comfort on these beds to sleep on." I said as he looked back into the room to find all of his people dancing and having a good time.

" Is that. . . Kili?" Thorin asked and a look of such pride and happiness slipped onto his face.

" Picked first to dance. Quite an honor." I lied as that just shot another glow of pride onto his face.

" And Fili?" Thorin asked as he looked around.

" I believe that is has been bouncing from woman to woman since about the time that Nori got asked to dance. Something about low expatiation's or something along those lines about the elven woman of Rivendale." I said with a faint laugh as Thorin just smiled as his face _glowed _with pride.

" Simply amazing." He said with a smile as he looked back at me, it was the first time that I had seen him with even the slightest happiness on his face.

" What, if I may ask?" I questioned as I puzzled his face.

" My nephews, dancing and being happy, being asked by woman to dance with them, this is something that I believe has never really happened to them before. I mean for Fili maybe, but Kili has always been an outcast. To see him dancing and happy, it brings me a great joy to see." Thorin said with a smile. " And their mother would be rather proud that they learned to dance."

" And you?" I asked as he shot me a questioning look. " Do you know how to dance, Mister Thorin?" I asked as he sent me a look of concern.

" I know how but I do not dance." Thorin hissed.

" Well tonight, you will." I smiled as I pulled him onto the floor and all of the shocked looks that came from his company as he was drug onto the floor. " Well now that you are out here you _have _to dance." I said with a laugh as he placed his hand on my waist, mine on his shoulder.

" I do not _have _to do anything." Thorin said through his teeth.

" Oh but you will." I smiled as Thorin's grim face finally broke to a smile.

" You are an evil girl, you know that?" He laughed.

" I have been told once or twice." I laughed along with him as we danced around and around.

There was something that made me feel so good about making the king happy and seeing him so happy dancing around and being able to see his nephews so happy. I would not have stopped that for a moment as long as I got to see that look of happiness and pride never leave his face for a moment. It was like all of the hatred and stress that had been put on his life for so many years finally just washed away and I could finally see what Thorin _truly _looked like. It had washed so many years away from his face until he was just a happy younger man. He was a true dancer, not for a moment did he allow me to lead and he knew each and every step. The only time that a foot was stepped on was when Thorin was bringing me down from a lift and accidentally placed me onto his foot. Which, instead of the yelling that I had expected, he let out a roaring laugh. Song after song played and I could see that the remainder of the woman all wanted their opportunity to impress the king, so finally, I gave a look and it was like a mad dash to see who would be able to get to him first.

" Be gentle with him ladies! He's rather sensitive." I laughed as I turned around and smashed right into Fili. " I am so sorry!" I said as he caught his balance.

" Well _that _hurt, but maybe you can make it up to me by a small dance?" He asked and pulled me in closer than anyone the whole night had.

" I see that you are liking your stay here in Rivendale?" I asked with a smile as he proudly looked around the room.

" Yes, I would say that I like it here. I would not call it home, but I would like to come through here from time to time." He smiled as he looked down at me.

" Would you come more the from time to time if you knew that I was here?" I asked as I looked up to him with hope.

" I would come as much as I possibly could until I became king. Then. . ." He could not look at me when he said that.

" Then?" I asked, wanting the answers so badly.

" That is far in the future." He shook his head as the song ended.

" I think that I am going to return to my room for the night." I said as I gave a small bow.

" I believe that I will too." He said with a smile as we both looked around and noticed that there were very few people that were still around. I wondered how long we had been dancing for. " Would you like me to walk you to your room?" He said with a hopeful tone.

" I would like that." I smiled as his face lit up.

" Get back to your room soon, Ori." Fili said as he patted his friend on the back.

" Soon, soon." Ori said as he pretty much ignored us.

" Goodnight, Elrond, Celebrian." I said to my brother and his wife as we passed, but they were so lost in one another that they simply nodded and waved.

As we walked along the empty streets that lead to different places I sighed and could see the breath on the rather cold night. The stars were perfectly clear as I looked up at them, half looking for guidance and half allowing my mind to come down from the night I had had. It may have been because of the little amount of wine that I had or because of how clumsy I could be at times, but I stumbled and had to grab onto Fili's arm for support, which he did not allow me to remove.

" For an Elf you are rather clumsy." Fili laughed at me.

" I know, I have been told that since the day I was born. That I was not elegant enough and that I was a clumsy fool. I find it rather funny because the only way that I am clumsy is because I take chances and sometimes fall on my own two feet." I sighed as I could hear the sounds of laughter of people leaving the festival. " I wonder if I will ever be in love like Elrond and Celebrian." I sighed as the sounds of laughter faded into the difference and we both stopped moving.

" I know that you will, Ireth." Fili said as he moved the hair that was in my face and tucked it under my ear. " I feel like when I am with your that my world gets turned upside down. You make me feel like no one ever has before and it's insanity because I have known for you such a little period of time. But when I see you I feel like the world comes to a spot and the only thing that I can see is you and I want you to know that when we make it out of all this I want you to come see my homeland." Fili said with a smile as he moved in closer to me.

This time I was prepared a little more, this time I knew what was happened, even a little. I could still feel the thumping on my heart becoming harder and harder on my chest as he placed his strong hands around my waist and pulled me right into his strong body. This time when he moved in I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in closer.


	6. Chapter 6

I did not know how all of these feelings for the Dwarf came to me like a wave of emotions. I did not know what to do with them either. I was nervous, even a little scared, but I _wanted _it as well. I wanted with every fiber of my body to be connected with him, I had a lust that I had never had before. My soul felt like it was on fire as he moved in closer and closer. Every part of me was wanting him with every passing second. It felt like a kind of magic that I had never felt before in my life, something that made me get butterflies with every half-second that passed by, waiting in anticipation for that moment to finally happen. And when our lips finally met, it felt more amazing than anything else that I had felt in my life. I had to pull him in for more.

There was nothing stopping us from one another as he slammed me up against one of the brick walls around us, gently placing his firm hand where my dress and skin met. I wrapped my fists into his hand and pulled him in closer by his hair. This sent a dark, muffled, moan from his lips without even pulling away. Slowly he moved from my lips and worked his way down to my neck as he started to nip and bite it. I had to use all of my strength in my body to not let out the loudest moan of my life as I bit down on my life and through this it brought a smile to the Dwarf's face as he looked up at me.

" You act like you have never done this before." Fili said in a dark tone as he worked his way back up my body back to my lips, sending every fiber of me back into a haze.

" I- I have not. Done anything like this before." I moaned out as his hand started to travel up my skirt.

" With anyone before? Not even an Elf?" Fili asked as his eyes met mine.

" With no one, not a man, that an Elf, not a Dwarf. It is something that can be thought of as so sacred in my culture that we have to have _deep _feelings for someone. It cannot be just because they are there or because you want someone. There's almost a power that be that tells you its alright and that you should go on with it. Or that is how the story always goes. I just have never felt that with someone. . . until now." I said as I looked down at the ground. " I feel like there is something inside of me that is on fire. I feel like I can be myself with you and you will understand it and still think of me the same. You look at me as if I should be placed high up on a pedestal as if I am made out of gold. I know that I can trust you and I think that is what I have been missing with everyone else." I smiled as I finally looked to see the look of pure joy and happiness overcome Fili's face.

" I feel like you should be placed up high for everyone to see and for the world to know your grace and beauty but I also want you there to protect you from the world. You have been through so much and I want you to know that I will never allow anything else to happen to you as long as I can protect you from it. I feel something with you that I have never felt with anyone in my life before, Ireth. When I looked at you," He said as he slowly took his hand off of my thigh and placed it onto my face, softly caressing it. " I feel like I never have before. I look at you and see the world the way that it should be. I see you and I feel like my insides are mashed up and I never want them to go back to normal. You amaze me each and every day." Fili said as he placed another soft kiss on my lips.

" I have never had a person say such things to me before." I whispered as he kissed my cheek once again and wrapped his arm around my waist.

" Well you will hear those things many times more in the near future and long after that." Fili said with a smile as we passed his and Kili's room. " I do not want to see what is behind that door." Fili shuddered as I placed my hand on his.

" Come and sleep in my room tonight. For once, do you worry about your brother. He is safe here." I smiled as Fili gave a weary smile but moved along the hallway to the end to where my room was.

Fili and I both just shed layers of clothing until we felt comfortable sleeping. Yes, I was nervous about sleeping in the same bed as a male, I mean for so many years I did not have a bed to sleep in let alone have someone to sleep in the bed with me, but this was. . . something that scared me. I trusted him with every fiber of my body, I knew that nothing bad would happen when I was with him, it was myself that I was so worried about. I did not know how far I would allow myself to go before that too far would become a regret that I would never be able to make up for. I had to keep myself focused on getting every flower and every twig that had been placed in my hair out so that I would not turn around and see Fili.

" Would you like some help?" He asked from directly behind me, I could feel all of my sense going haywire.

" I think that I can handle it- ow!" I hissed as I took out a rose that still had thorns on it. The pool of blood starting to form on my index finger. " Oh for fuck sake's that- oh my god! Who the hell would think about putting a rose with _thorns _in someone's fucking hair!" I hissed as I could hear Fili's laughter from behind me. " Oh, you think that this is funny, don't you?" I hissed as I snapped around to look him dead in the eyes.

" Well. . . yes I do find this really funny. You had your throat cut and you did not make a noise, but a small prick to the finger could hurt you in such as way." Fili said with a smile as he took up my finger so that we could both look at it. " And it could make you cuss like a drunken sailor."

He lead me over to the bed where he sat down beside of me and started to take all of the other flowers out one by one, throwing them on the ground as he went, I felt bare as he was doing this. I tried to keep my eyes off of the well sculpted body that was Fili but every time that I would look away or try and start up a conversation to keep my distracted, it would always come back to my looking over at his body. I think that he was having too much fun with getting all of the flowers out of my hair and then unbraiding everything that he did not even notice my starring. Or atleast I hoped that he did not. Finally, when I thought that the whole night may have passed with him getting me prepared for bed he finally took me by the face and I felt the crash of our lips meeting once again.

One thing was leading to another so quickly. One minute we were sitting the bed kissing, the next thing I knew I was straddling him and shoving him down onto my bed as hard as I could., stripping off his undershirt as he went down. His wondering hands were working their way from my torso all the way to my waist. All I could do was sit there and take it all in as I tired to keep my moans as quite as possible, trying not to wake up the people that would be in the next room over. Fili was being torturingly slow as he wrapped his thick around around my body and slipped my bar right off my head. As he moved his hands back around he moved them straight for each breast, playing with them, flicking and lightly twisting them as he smiled as he saw the waves of pleasure wash over my face. I could feel the hardness of him from between my legs.

" Fili! Oh fuck!" I screamed out and something then happened to Fili, something that I could not explain. He simply stopped.

" I'm sorry." He whispered to me.

" Sorry? There is nothing to be sorry about." I smiled lightly as I leaned over and gave him a small kiss on the lips.

" No, there really is. These kinds of things are supposed to be special. There is so much that I _want _to do with you right here and now, but it is not the right time for it. We just started. . . started this. . ." He said as he gestured to the space between the two of us. " and please do not get me wrong or anything, but not is not the time for us to even be thinking about this. I think for now. . . this is where we should draw the line." Fili said as he looked up at me with a half smile.

" I completely agree with you." I smiled as his face light up and there was no way to keep a smile off of his face.

" Really?" He asked and he looked like he was so happy.

" Really, really. I- I don't know what was coming over me. You are like some form of drug where once I start I want more and more." I said with a faint laugh as I looked down at him. " Maybe we should go to bed." I smiled as he pulled me down and started to kiss me once again, rolling me over so that we were side to side rather than me on top of him.

" Maybe. . . in a bit." Fili said as he brought my lips back to his.

" Oh maybe what we need is an ice cold shower." I laughed as Fili pulled my face back in and would not allow me to draw back.

_It was freezing even for it being in the middle of the summer. None of us were prepared for the dropping temperature that was coming over us as a horrible snow storm was pounding over out freezing bodies. I felt more like an icicle from a tree rather than a real living person as we felt moving. We were in the mountains I think, someplace that was new and must have been far away as I could see that Bilbo was standing next to me, Fili and Kili were on guard, and Bilbo was talking to me about something that I could not fully hear because of the sound of the roaring wind that was around us. _

_ We all had to be rather huddled up and near one another because of how fast and hard the snow was coming on us. We were all rather short and would not be able to find one anther in this type of weather. I felt like screaming with every step that we were taking because of the numbness that was overcoming my feet. I worried about my little Hobbit friend and his bare feet as they were trudging through the snow, he seemed to be the coldest person our of the whole company. I was used to the cold, it was not like they gave us anything for comfort as we slept so this was nothing new, well besides the fact that it was now snowing to add onto it. I could see my breath with every step, I could feel that my hair was starting to freeze from where my snow had started to melt because of my body heat and was not freezing because it was piling up. I was starting to feel extremely weak from exhaustion, we had been looking for a place to rest for hours now without even a small cave to slip into for miles now. _

" _We will find someplace soon, there must be something around." Bilbo said in a shout, which sounded more like a whisper, as we looked up ahead to our fearless leader, who we could barely see._

" _I hope so, I can barely keep my eyes opened." I shouted back as I looked down to see that Bilbo's lips were starting to turn blue. " We really must get you inside soon, you are starting to freeze, my friend. I think that you need to get inside more than any of us." I said with a smile as I ruffled his hair. " Keep quite now to keep warmer." I smiled as we kept moving until, something stopping me dead in my tracks._

_ Something that I could hear, something that I could feel that the other did not. The ground. It was. . . making horrible noises. They rest kept moving and kept going ahead and all I could do was scream at them, shouting as they kept moving. There was something wrong, the sound of crackling, the ground was starting to lightly shake around us, how could they not see it?! How could they not feel it around them? I did everything to try and keep them from moving, trying to pull them back until finally I started to run for it, moving and running, screaming as I made my way up the line of Dwarfs until I was finally standing in front of the leader of our group as the ground started to shake even harder._

" _Thorin! We have to go back!" I screamed as he started to shove me out of the way._

" _Get out of my way, Girl, whatever you have left is lost now. We are not going back." Thorin hissed as he shoved me hard enough to send me to the ground.  
" No! You are standing on ice that is starting to thaw!" I screamed as I shoved him back to where he had been standing before. " If we do not leave soon we are all going to be-" I said and all at once I was in the freezing water. _

_ I tried to scream but my lungs started to freeze with water as I started to sink lower and lower into the water below. I knew how to swim, that was nothing new, but It felt like I was being drug down deeper and deeper into the ground as I looked up to see a sea of hands trying to reach down for me screaming for me. I kept trying to reach up and grab a hand, trying so hard to pull myself back to the surface, back to life. Everything was getting darker and darker. Something whooshing around me as I looked down as saw something from below me a. . . a-_

" IRETH!" Fili said as I awoke to the swinging of my body.

" Oh Fili!" I cried out as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in close. " I just had the worst dream of my life!" I said as I tried to catch my breath as the door nearly broke down with the Dwarfs rushing in.

" What's going on in here!" Bofur said with his weapon drawn as both Fili and myself tried to cover ourselves.

" Well well, what do we have here?" Glion said with a thick smile coming to his face and I could feel all of the blood in my body rushing to my face.

" Oh my god." I whispered.

" Way to go Fili!" We could both hear Kili cheering as I nuzzled my face into Fili's shoulder to hide my pure embarrassment.

" Ireth had a nightmare-" Fili tried to say.

" And you were just helping her through the night." Kili said with a wink.

" Both screaming one anther's names and screaming in bed together. Wait till your uncle hears of this." Balin said laughing with a smile on his face.

" Wait!" Fili said.

" Common boys, lets give them some time." Dwalin said as he shooed the younger ones away and gave us a small wink. " Sleep tight and I'll make sure the word doesn't get out _too _far."

" Thank you, Dwalin." Fili nodded as the last Dwarf left, I could see feel my body trembling from the cold water.

" It was just a bad dream Ireth, just a nightmare, I swear on it. I'll protect you." Fili said as he wrapped his arm around my body and brought me in as close as he could to his body. " You are as cold as ice Ireth, I swear you where not like this before you started to screaming. . . what is going on?" He asked as he looked down with his eyes so concerned. I was so cold it was so hard to get words to come out from my trembling breath.

" I. . . I think that I. . . just. . . had a vision. . ." I got out as Fili gave me a very questioning look. " Elves can. . . see the. . . past. . . present. . . and future." I got out as Fili's body heat was slowly starting to bring heat back into my body.

" Amazing. What- what did you see?" He asked as he looked down at me and then pulled me in closer. " You know what, tell me when you are warmer." He said as he wrapped all of the blankets that he could around our bodies. " Your lips are blue, let me fix that." He said with a smile as he kissed them hard and fast. They were so numb that I could barely feel it but when I pushed away he looked hurt and it pained me to have to do it to him.

" No, I- I need to find. . . Elrond. He- he will know what to do." I gasped out as there was a knock on the door, loud and booming.

" We leave in an hour." Thorin hissed as we could hear him walking down the hallway and back into his room.

" Get. Elrond. Now." I hissed to Fili as he gave me a panicked look.


	7. Chapter 7

Fili made me feel like a baby by making me allow him to help me get dressed,wrapping me up in each and every blanket that he could find, and then lifting me and running me through the halls. Though I knew that I would be able to stand, it felt almost nice to see that he truly cared so much. . . it was odd to have someone care about me so much. Luckily none of our company saw us while we were running from hallway to hallway looking for my dear brother. I think that I really would have died from embarrassment if that would have happened, I had had enough of being embarrassed with those boys to last me a lifetime and a half. Finally we came to the room that I knew would have had to have been his and Fili started to bang on the door like a madman!

" Elrond! Lord Elrond please open the door!" Fili begged and I had to pull on his braid to make him shut up.  
" If you really want to get his attention all you have to do is this." I said with a smile as I unwrapped my fist from my blanket burrito I was and started to bag on the door. " Elrond!" I screamed at the top of my lungs like I used to when I was a kid and within seconds my brother was standing at the door looking panicked.

" What in the world is the- Ireth, what is wrong?" Elrond asked with a look that was a mixture of horror and panic as he looked up at Fili. " What did you do to her?" He growled and I could see a animalistic look coming Elrond.

" Me? Nothing, I did nothing to her! She- she woke up screaming and was like this!" Fili said as Elrond rushed us both into his grand room.

" I had a vision. Elrond it was horrible." I shook as Elrond placed another blanket on top of me. " We are leaving in an hour and I need to warm up."

" Celebrian!" Elrond cried out to the bedroom as his breath taking and beautiful wife came with grave.

" Yes?" She asked with a smile as it started to fade and her eyes widened as she saw me. " Oh god, what is wrong?"

" She is freezing, quickly go and make some hot tea." Elrond hissed and flew his hand at her. " Now you tell me everything that you can remember from this vision. Everything that you can remember scents, people, anything."

" We were in the middle of a snow storm and he would not listen to me. I think that he truly hates me still. We were looking for shelter because we had been suck in that storm for hours. I was worried about Bilbo. No one could hear one another without screaming because of how bad the wind was. I tried to warn everyone, tried to get them off the ice, but they simply could not hear me, or I hope that's when they were ignoring me. I knew that we were standing on ice, I could feel it and I could hear it cracking. I was not going to let our leader sink into the freezing water below, even after he pushed me, I pushed right back and that's when I fell. Light was fading and it felt like no matter how hard I tried. . . no matter how much I tried to swim up and grab someones hand. . . I kept going further and further down. Then I looked down and. . ." I was getting caught up in my thoughts which were swirling around.

" And?!" Both Fili and Elrond said as I looked up and saw how close they had leaned in to me.

" And that's when I woke up. I know there was something though." I said as I tried so hard to remember. " It was so important!" I hissed as I grabbed onto my hand and tried to remember.

" It's okay, Ireth." Elrond said as he took my hands from my hair and placed them into his big and strong hands. " But who was ignoring you?"

" I was protecting Thorin of course." I whispered and I could see the hairs on Fili's neck stand up. " If he would have went into the water I would have never forgave myself for it." I said as I shook my head.

" It's alright Ireth." Elrond said as he placed his hand onto my body, I could feel him using his healing powers on me and started to feel myself slowly warming up.

" So is that why she is freezing? Because of that vision?" Fili asked to my brother with a look of such concern that it made me smile just a little.

" Exactly why she is. She was legitimately _into_ that vision she has more power when it comes to visions than I have where when she has them in her sleep, she gets _thrown _into the vision and until the vision is over she will stay there unless someone wakes her out of it like you did. I have not seen someone with such power in a _very _long time. You have power beyond even I, Sister." Elrond said with a very sweet smile as Celebrian came in with a hot cup of tea and instantly gave it to me.

" Thank you." I smiled as she placed her hand onto my cheek.

" You are so welcome." She smiled as I looked down and was able to see into their room and saw two cribs in the room with two small toddlers in them,

" Brother!" I hissed as I instantly jumped from my place and thrusted my drink into Fili's chest as I moved quickly into the bedroom.

" Well she is feeling better." Elrond said with a smile as he and Celebrian followed me into the bedroom, Fili slowly following behind.

" How can you tell?" Fili asked with a smile as he watched the way that my brother held onto my shoulder as I moved in between the two cribs.

" Because she is getting noisy once again. That is something that you would never grow out of Sister." Elrond smiled down at his sleeping twin boys.

" They remind me of your and Elros." I smiled as I looked down at the two black haired boys.

" How would you know, dear Sister, you were not even thought of when we were that age." Elrond said in a hushed tone as he looked at me and saw how much joy was on my face.

" The way that they reach out for one another through their crib bars and can only barely touch one anther. When we were all children you two were inseparable. I mean you two were just barely adults but you two still clung to one another. Where one went the other was sure to be near." I smiled as I saw how much they truly looked like my brother. " They are beautiful."

" Thank you." Celebrian finally said.

" They act more and more like you each and every day though, they seem to have a free spirit like you rather than mine or Elros's." Elrond smiled as he looked up at me.

" Well I never followed the rules like you seemed to always be doing. What are their names?" I smiled as I leaned over their cribs and saw how much they looked like Mother.

" Elladan is on your left and Elorhir is on your right." Elrond said with such pride that it made me smile.

" I'm- I'm an aunt." I said overjoyed as I looked down at my nephews.

" We would have named one Ireth if they would have been girls, in honor of you." Celebrian said with such joy that I could feel a tear coming down my tear, though I wiped it away before anyone could see it. I was an aunt.

" I am so happy to see that you have started a life here, my brother, truly thrilled for you. I wish I would have been there for you through each and every good and bad moment. You, me, and Elros, we will have to catch up when I return. Where is he living now." I asked with a smile on my face as I thought of my other brother.

" Oh Ireth." Celebrian said as her hands went to her mouth almost instantly and I just looked from Celebrian and Elrond.

" What? What?" I asked as I looked and could feel the dread coming back to the room. " Elrond tell me, what has happened to our brother?! Where is Elros?!" I begged as I looked at him in the eyes and could feel the tears coming to my eyes as I already knew what he was going to say. " No! Why- why would he do that?"

" Sister, he chose the mortal life and he is getting _very _old and is fading fast. We have been waiting for the news about him for weeks now, he is just barely holding on." Elrond said as he wrapped me into a hug and would not allow me to leave the embrace.

" But. . . no. . ." Was all I could saw as I got all of the tears away from my eyes.  
" I am sorry Sister." He whispered as after many minutes he finally allowed me out of the embrace and looked to Fili. " I'm guessing that you are leaving?"

" Yes. I guess that I came for help and to say goodbye." I smile a weak smile as I looked up at my brother and could see the heartbreak on his face.

" It is funny that your leader has chosen this of all hours to leave. Right when everyone will be in a meeting with one another. Even Gandalf will be there." Elrond said with a smile as he gave me a kiss on the forehead. " The things that you required will be waiting when you get back to your room. Go now, bring greatness where you go and take this," Elrond said as he wrapped something around my wrist. " It is the symbol of Rivendale, allow it to lead you if you ever get lost."

" Thank you Brother. Always remember that I love you and will return once this journey has ended." I said in Elven as we started to leave the room.

" Sister!" Elrond said as I spun around to see him weakly smiling. " Please be careful, I thought that I had lost you once, please do not make my believe it once again."

" I will not. I will be back before you know it and then we will go and see Elros, he is stronger than you believe." I smiled as I shut the door to my brother and started towards my room once again.

" I will meet you along with everyone else at the passing in twenty minutes. Since I am the only one that has even heard of this passing before, I think it best if I lead." I laughed with a wink as I returned into my room, slid down the door, and tried to wrap my head around everything that had happened.

I loved everything that I had been given from the people here and most importantly from Galadriel herself. It was all so beautiful and I would so able to walk in it so much better than the items that the girls in the Inn had given me. No more dressed and skirts for me, it was all well fitting pants and shirts with well tied vests. There was soft and flowy clothing that would allow me to fight and walk in, some armor under that so I would be able to fight and not worry about getting stabbed, and a hooded cloak that would keep any rain from soaking to my skin. Then there was my bow and arrow. Made for a true warrior and with such purpose that I felt like it must not have been made for me. It was made out of the finest things that I had ever seen before and was handcrafted. There were even tiny whirled designed that were on the handle of the bow. Everything about it made me smile and made me feel like I was more prepared for this journey than I really was.

I took the time that I had left and waiting there at the passing for everyone else to show up and just started to shoot my arrows into the trees that were around so that I could get a good feeling for what the weapon could do. Accuracy was amazing, there was nothing that I would have even thought about doing to make it any better and the arrows shot almost halfway through a full grown tree and made it so that I had to put my leg onto the tree and pull as hard as I could to yank the damn things out. It would kill someone with or without a dead hit and just keep going through the body like butter! It took me a few times to be able to hit anything because I was so unused to using such a well made bow, but when I finally got used to it and knew how to aim it, I was a sure-fired kill shot. I smiled as I started to move from just shooting one tree to shooting one and then going right on to the next.

" You really are one amazing girl when it comes to a bow and arrow." Kili said as he tried to take one out of a tree and found out how hard it was to get it out. " New bow and arrows?" Kili questioned with a smile as he took one out of my newly made steel basket.

" Yes a special gift from, Galadriel, herself." I smiled as I took another one out and shot it right for the tree that Kili had just been at.

" The Elven-witch?" Kili asked as he tried to act like he was not afraid of what had just whizzed by his head.

" Are you trying to kill him Ireth?" Bilbo asked as he came from behind Kili.

" Burglar! Good to see that you have been working on your sneaking! You really did get me there!" Kili said with a smile as he placed his hand on his chest.

" Bulgar?" I questioned as I looked at Kili and then to Bilbo.

" Yes, you see the dragon will never smell Bilbo going and he will be able to break right in and will never be suspected!" Kili said with such joy and that cute smile came back to his face.

" Oh, I see." I smiled as I took the arrow from Kili's hand and instantly shot it into the tree on the opposite sided of us. " And no, Bilbo, I would never dream about killing the only other person who uses a bow and arrow as a weapon like Kili. It just gives me some competition." I smiled as I started to yank all of my arrows out of the trees, taking chunks of each tree out of all of them.

" What a little firecracker she is." Kili whispered to Bilbo.

" Aye, that she is." Fili said from behind and I could feel the smile that was forming on my lips as I kept myself looking at the tree.

" Mr. Baggins! You were not there this morning when we found these two. . . together. Buck naked. Screaming for one another!" Kili said and I could feel the blood that was rushing to my face.

" There was nothing that was going on between us! She had a. . . a." Fili was trying to think of the right words to say.

" Oh we all know that it was a lot more than just her having a nightmare." Kili smiled as he nudged his brother and I could see the embarrassment that was showing on his face as well as I spun around. It was then that I had had enough with this rubbish.

" I was having a bloody nightmare and you boys took it way out of proportion. If I wanted to have sex with your brother last night, trust me Kili, you would have heard it all night long and not just that one time and trust me it would have been a damn lot more screaming than that. I would have taken your brother more places then he has ever _gone _with a Dwarf before and further than that." I said as I took an arrow out of my basket and aimed it. " So do you have anything _else _you want to say about that while I still have this out and aimed?" I hissed as both Kili and Fili looked two different kinds of horrified. I could hear the faint laughter of Bilbo.

" Not. A. Word. Kili." Fili hissed as he came over to me and made me point my bow down.

" I was not going to actually _shoot_ him." I sighed as he placed the boy on my backpack.

" And why do I not believe that for a second?" Fili said with a smile as while he moved the hair out my face. " You must remind me to tell Galadriel how much I love this outfit when we get back. You look so. . . sexy in it." Fili smiled as he gave me a quick kiss on the lips as everyone else started to form in line around us and almost as instantly as we were ready to leave, the rain started to pour from the sky. I think that it was some type of a warning.

" Well I hope that everyone liked staying in their comfortable beds and having a warn shower because there will most likely me no more of this until this is over with." Thorin said from beside me as he looked over to me and I shrugged.

" I usually went a lot longer than this entire journey has been started with you boys before I was even given the _chance _of a shower. Beds, that was nice while it lasted, but _I _can live without it. Can you?" I asked as we both gave one another a fake smile and we started to walk forward.

" Kili, Fili, take guard." Thorin said as he looked over his company, Fili taking out his dual swords and Kili how bow and arrow, the rest looking ahead with a wide smile on their faces. " Keep the Burglar in the middle, we would not want him getting lost."

" Then why don't you keep him in front with me. I can assure he will be safe with _me_." I hissed as I was getting so sick of the way that he was treating our Hobbit.

" Fine, Burglar-"  
" _Bilbo._" I hissed at the king as he rolled his eyes.

" Bilbo, up front, everyone else, stay close." Thorin spat at me and then I knew that I was semi the reason why Thorin hated me, because I spoke out. " Let us leave."  
" Journey on." I smiled to Bilbo who was smiling up at me with such happiness. _" Do not let him take the joy out of this journey while we still can have a little joy, Bilbo." _I said through his mind as I started to walk the stone pathway at the back of Rivendale.

" _I will try_." Bilbo replied.

" Miss Ireth, have you ever taken this path before?" Nori asked from the side.  
" No I have not, only ever heard about it and know the path because of maps." I said with a smile as I looked back at the Dwarf who almost had the same hair color as myself.

" Better than the rest of us." His brother Ori said with a shrug.

" It will be a journey." I smiled as we kept walking through the cold ice, it felt like the ice water on my face.


	8. Chapter 8

I hate rain. It reminds me of snow. Both so cold and sticks to clothing way to well for one to like. We had been walking in that damn rain for what seemed like days on as we started to move deeper and deeper into a canyon. We were all getting tried and we needed to find a place just to dry off and maybe get a few good hours of sleep in before we would have to go going once again on our journey. I could feel my teeth chattering as I kept walking alongside Bilbo and tried to smile down at him whenever we looked at one another. It was hard to keep that smile on when I could feel my whole body shake with every step. Though my clothing would keep out every inch of rain that was getting blasted onto my body, it did not keep out the bone chilling wind that crept around every corner and was like it had been following us since we had left Rivendale.

" Cold?" Kili asked as he came up from behind and poked his head between Bilbo and myself.

" I feel a slight bit cold, yes." I lied through my teeth with a small smile as I tried to keep the wind from blowing my hood right off of my head. We were coming up to a passing that could only take one person at a time.

It was pretty narrow and though it would never tell a soul this, I was rather afraid of the height that we were at and falling to my death. First Throin went across the small passage and of course he made it to the other side without even taking the same look that he always had off of his face. He made everything look like it was nothing at all. Then Balin and Oin follow just the same as Thorin, smiling and looking like it was nothing for them. I wondered if it was something about their age and trying to keep a good face for the younger of us. When they smiled it made me smile, just a bit, because it meant that another had made it across. Then it was Bilbo's turn, he took it slowly as he tried to creep across. Though I tried to keep calm on the outside, I could feel myself gripping onto Kili's hood, I did not consciously know that I was doing it, though when Kili took my hand into his, I knew rather well that I was doing something.

" He will do just fine." Kili said with a smile as he could see my biting on my lip.  
" I hope that you are- Bilbo!" I screamed as he lost his footing and took the plunge across the rock and I thought that he was dead already. I ran to the crossing and as I looked down I could see him holding on with just a hand. " Give me your hand!" I screamed as I crouched down and tried to reach him, but we were still a foot or more apart from one another. I spun my head around to find something that would fit the gap and would not break in the process.

As I was in the process of looking for something Thorin jumped from the cliff, grabbing onto one of the rocks that was only an inch or two above where Bilbo was and took him into his free and as I ran to the other side without even thinking about it, I grabbed Oin who had hold of Balin, he was holding onto Thorin, and we all started to pull the two up. All I could do was smile as I saw Bilbo's extremely frightened face come up from the rock cliff and could feel the relief flooding to my whole body as Thorin dropped him from his arms. I could feel the wide smile that was coming to my face through the wind and rain as I ran and hugged the Hobbit as hard as I could, sending us both falling into the rock wall.

" Don't ever scare me like that again! You fool! You scared the hell out of me right then!" I hissed as I hugged him harder.  
" I think that I was a _little _more scared than you, Ireth." Bilbo said with a smile as I let him go and automatically started to unruffle his shirt.

" What where you thinking back there! You have no right to be here with us. All you do is put all of is in danger!" Thorin said as he cut between us.

" He fell! It could have happened to any of us who-"  
" Were not paying attention." Thorin cut in as he moved to the middle of the group and started to talk with one of the other members of the company, I was so infuriated that I took Bilbo up the the front of the group.

" I was going to say loose their footing." I hissed as I rolled my eyes and we started to all follow behind them until something came crashing down at us. A bolder.

Kili threw me into a little crevasse in the rocks and guarded me from any debris that could have come back up and hit us as we all looked back to hear the crashing that was not coming from the thunder that was around us. We looked up in shock was we saw two different parts of the canyon starting to come to life and started to fight one another. All of us were in such shock that all we did was stare at the creatures who had come to life during the storm.

" Oh my god." I whispered as the started to hit one another as hard as they could, rocks the size of a horse coming off of one and sizes _bigger _coming from the other.

" We have to get out of here!" Thorin screamed to the back of the group as we all started to run as fast as we could away from the fighting giants. But then something happened that we were not expecting.

The path that had we had been walking on started to move. It was something that had gotten a mixture of a scream and a gasp out of me as we all stopped dead in our place as an earthquake all around us started. I almost automatically grabbed onto the back of Bilbo's shirt and pulled him as close to the wall as possible to ensure his protection. I could feel the panic that was starting to creep back into my body as the ground started to shake even harder and a crack between Kili and Fili's body to mine. The panic grew deeper as we started to move further and further apart from one another.

" Fili!" I screamed in panic as the gap grew bigger and bigger, most of the company on that side of the gap and some in front of me and Bilbo.

" Take my hand!" Fili screamed back as he tried to reach out for my hand and I to his, but we were already too far apart. I felt like screaming, I could feel the panic that was building higher and higher.

Our side of the group was _on _a stone giant. The body started to move away from the path. I wedged Bilbo into the little crevasse that Kili had kept me in and moved my body in front of his as we moved further out. Bofur, Bifur, Gloin, Dwalin, Oin, Bilbo, and myself were now on the side that was much more dangerous as we passed the other group once again and they all had their arms stretched out, trying to bring us back to their side. I could see the look that was coming from Fili as we passed and could see that he was just as scared that I was at that moment. All on our side were grabbing onto whatever piece of rock we could hold onto as the giant was fighting with the others. I was grasping onto whatever I could find, slicing up my hand on some rocks as I held onto them for dear life.

For a moment I could see something, _something that had yet to happen, _us crashing down into a little pocket in the rocks. All bunched together into a tightly knit bundle. I could not explain it as I started to look around, I could see the group a hundred yards away from us now and could see the small pocket. We were close to it, very close, as I looked up the the giant that was above, I could see that he was weakening. We would have one time and one time at this only. One shot. I screamed for the others to get as close to me and Bilbo as possible as the giant started his great fall into the gap. I pulled everyone in as hard as I could as we made impact with the pocket and came crashing into the ground and rocks that were all around us. I could feel myself screaming, though I could not hear it as, I looked around to see that all of the others were alright.

" Well. . ." I coughed up from the rock and rock debris that was surrounding us and could hear the faint sounds of the others. " That went better then planned." I said and could hear them all faintly laughing.

" You had _that _planned, genius this girl is." I could hear Gloin say.

" How? When." Bilbo question from beside of me.

" I think a vision. Like a second and a half before it happened. It was some pretty hardcore thinking on the spot kind of thing. . . I think." I groaned as I tried to get some rocks that were on my body off. " Everyone alright?" I cried out as I could hear the groans of all saying yes.

" Are they alive?!" I could hear Ori call out from a short distance away.

" Where are they?" Kili asked.

" Over here!" I screamed and could automatically hear the sounds of rushing feet coming towards us. " Thank god." I whispered as I looked over to Bilbo then down to my torso where a bolder had landed. " I would have never been able to get this off of me on my own." I smiled as he had already gotten everything off of him and was just kind of breathing heavily to himself.

" Does it hurt? Do you think that I could get it off?" Bilbo asked as he started to get up my a threw my arm onto of his body and sent him back to the ground.

" Hurt? No. It would take so much more than a bolder crashing down on my body to hurt _me. _I mean come on, Bilbo. And I didn't think that you could get the ones off of your body, let alone mine. No offense but I cant even get these off." I got out, the boulder was starting to make it harder and harder to speak.

" Someone help! Quickly! Over here!" Bilbo started to scream out, waving his arm frantically to the others making me only laugh.

" Do you know. . . how foolish you look. . . right now?" I got out in short gasps. Okay, breathing was starting to get _really _hard.

" Shut up and sit there, you are wasting your breath." This made me smile as I thought back to my vision and remembered me telling him almost the same thing.

" Ireth?!" Fili said as he rushed over to my body and nearly threw the boulder off of me.

" Fili." I smiled as he pulled me into his chest and I touched his face with my hand.

" Are you alright? How badly are you hurt?" Fili asked as he started to look at all of my limbs and each and every body part. All I could do was smile as he looked over all of this.

" I am fine, just having a little bit of a hard time breathing because of that bolder but other then that and shaking like a leaf, I think that I am just fine." I smiled up at him with such joy.

" She was brilliant!" Bilbo said with a smile as he looked around to see that everyone else was started to move in closer to us. " She save our lives!"

" The Burglar is right on this one. If it wasn't for Ireth, we would all be plastered on the walls around us rather then standing here." Gloin said with a smile as he moved over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. " I owe you my life, girl."  
" As do I." Bofur smiled as he looked at me wish such care.

" And I." Oin said as he stood beside Thorin. Soon all of the others that had been on our side had said it.

" You saved all of these people, my fellow peoples, lives. Thank you, Ireth." Thorin said with a smile as he tried to help me up and I could feel the twang of pain coming from inside and could only let of a short yelp.

" What?! What is it?" Fili asked as he wrapped his whole arm around me.

" It's nothing, really." I said as Fili rolled his eyes and pulled up my shirt only lightly to show the marks of a fresh bruise that was turning black.

" Balin!" Thorin cried out as he came over to my body and I starred at it in horror. " There is no bleeding coming out. We can only hope for no internal bleeding." Him saying this to me only made me laugh a little.

" When you have a trauma patient you are not supposed to tell them about their injuries. Especially if they seem like they could faint. They could go into shock or worse." I smiled as the kind looked at me in confusion.

" She is right, Thorin. Now step back and allow me to do my work. You seem like you have never seen something like this before." Balin said as he nearly shoved the king out the way.

" I am fine. . . really. . . just some minor bruising." I said, really, I had had much worse then this before when I worked at the inn, this was nothing.

" Everyone out!" Balin hissed as he sent the others back into the cold rain. " Go look for another place for us to sleep tonight for this will not do!"

" You heard him! Everyone out!" Thorin hissed as he started to herd the others out.

" Fili. . ." Kili whispered to his brother as he tried to reach for Fili's arm, which he got slapped away.

" No. I am not leaving her, I will not leave you!" Fili said as he looked down at me and wrapped a hand around my face and all I could do was smile as I touched his face.

" It would be wise if you go and find us a place to sleep tonight. Get a fire started, things like that, it would not be helpful to the group for you to stay back and comfort me." I smiled as I gently kissed the hand that had just been on my face.

" I don't care about anything but you right now and I will not leave you here all by yourself! Not after I thought that I had lost you." Fili said as he shook his head. " No. I will not leave, you cannot do anything about it." All I could do was smile as his stubbornness as I nodded for Kili to leave his brother's side as he and Bilbo were the last to leave us there alone.

" Now this may hurt a little, but I have to access if there is any internal bleeding." Balin said as he started to move his hand around my stomach and instantly I started to scream.

The wrapping that they had used on my ribcage made it a lot harder to breath, but it did not hurt as much when I could breath. One broken and two other cracked ribs was what had happened when the boulder had come crashing down on my body. Now, this was something that I would have never thought about, the fact that _one broken and two cracked ribs _could feel like nothing to me. I guess that I have had enough in my life for it to seem like nothing. But as Fili and myself worked out away into the cave that someone had chosen, I made sure that I was walking all But this was different, they were just happy to see that I was alive and that Fili had finally found love.

" There is our hero of the day!" Kili said as he gave me a pat on the back and I tried to do everything that I could to not scream my lungs off, instead a rather long groan came out.

" Careful, I am a little broken." I smiled as Kili's face went to terror.

" I am so sorry! I completely-"  
" Kili, it is fine." I smiled as I placed my hand onto his shoulder. " Just remember, I nearly died today and would not like the die in the near future."

" Just don't break her anymore then she already is. I will have to break way more bones in you Brother than I have in the past." Fili smiled as he hit his brother on the shoulder and we made our way to the far end of the cave.

We settled down for the night in a little dip in the cave where it started to move in a little so we would have a little more privacy. Fili wrapped his longer jacket around the two of us while I used my cloak as a little but of support from the cold and hardness of the solid ground that we were on. It had been such a long day that as Fili brought me close into his body and allowed me to sleep on his chest, I could feel that I was already starting to fall into a really deep sleep. We did not even take our weapons off of us, we had been that tired, or maybe cautious. I smiled as I could feel Fili kiss the top of my forehead and I wrapped my hand around his shirt as if he was going to run away in the middle of the night.  
" Goodnight, Love." I whispered to Fili in elfish.  
" What did you just say?" Fili asked with a smile as he looked down at me and his little braids tickled my cheeks.

" I said goodnight to you." I said as I gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

" Goodnight, my Ireth." Fili whispered into my hair as I got settled into his chest.

" Goodnight, my Love." I said with a smile coming to my face. Soon I could hear the soft breathing of Fili and knew that he had fallen asleep and could feel myself fall into a deep sleep. I felt so safe in his arms, I was so wrong. I awoke to the earth shaking and the ground coming out from under us and landing to be face to face with a thousand or more Goblins.


	9. Chapter 9

We were all rather dazed and confused as we slipped and sledded down the long almost slide-like form of a cave and came plunging down one one another with a crashing thud. I looked up to see the charging of what seemed like a thousand different goblins and instantly went for my sword. Though it still hurt to even breath, I went on the attack zone and started to rip and cut into anyone who came near the company. I could hear the others fighting but I could not see anyone besides the person that was in front of me. It was funny that when someone tries to attack the people that you love and care so much about, no matter how little you have known them for, you will do anything to make sure that they are alright. I felt like a mother bear trying to protect all of her little cubs. But the waves of goblins kept coming and soon enough I knew that it was helpless. What I did not know was that none of the others had even thought about using their weapons, they were all fighting barehanded. So when they started to push and shove us in line, I slowly placed mine back into my holster. They threw me right into line behind Thorin at the front of the group.

" We are so fucked." I whispered as we were being shoved through the groups of goblins. I was honestly terrified.

" So much more than fucked." I could hear Kili hiss behind me. With every elbow and every shove that came below my chest sent a spark of pain through my body that was almost so unbearable.

We came to an opening n the ocean of goblins only to see a huge and fat goblin was sitting at a thrown in front of everyone. Thorin was thrown to the ground in front of who I could only expect to be the kind as the rest of us were all stripped of any and all weapons. My sword, my bow and arrow, everything was taking from me as they were all being throw into a pile right in front of Thorin. The king just saw there with a look of anger on his face as we were finally and completely weapon free, this was when the king knew that he would be safe enough to say everything and anything that he wanted and there would be nothing that we could do about it. I was in between Thorin and the rest of the group, they had left a little space between myself and the others, I could only wonder why.

I was scared and as I looked back to see the others all I could see was Fili's eyes starring directly at me. They were calming as they looked at me and I could see a faint smile of hope coming to his face as he looked at me. I tried to smile back, but there was nothing coming from my face, there was nothing at all. As I looked away for only a second a wave of panic washed over my face as I looked from face to face. Where the hell was Bilbo? What had they done with him? I looked over once again to make sure that I had not missed him because of his height, but he was no where to be found. I even started to look for his very different feet from the group and could still not find him anywhere. I was panicking as I kept looking over and over again until a wave of pain came across my face as I found that a goblin had sliced me in the face, right above my eyebrow, with one of our own swords!

" Do not touch me!" I screamed as the group started to roar around me as I was thrown the the ground beside Thorin, I could see the blood that was already coming from my wound. Thorin gave me a look of concern filled with telling me to shut the hell up. As we both look up to the goblin king, I could feel myself shaking.

" Well well well, what have we here? Thirteen Dwarfs and an Elf? How odd to see this group together like this. The last that I heard. . . didn't Elves and Dwarfs hate one another?" The Goblin king asked as he looked around to his followers with a laugh. " So what are you doing trespassing on us like this? What have you come here for?" He hissed, though he did not really care. I knew that if he looked too hard at Thorin he would know who he was with even a true glimpse. But there he was, looking at Thorin for the answers. He was starting to get down off of his thrown when finally, I came up with something on the spot.

" Me!" I shouted as Thorin whipped his head around to look at me. " I am the reason that we are here. We did not mean to trespass onto your kingdom, your Majesty, that was all an addicted. But if you must know I am the reason that we are here. I am a. . . a gift from the Elves of Rivendale to the Dwarf lords as a sign of peace and forgiveness." I made up on the spot as I went along, the King started to look a little more and more interested as I kept going along with my fictional story. " You see, I am to marry a Dwarven king to show peace between the Elves and Dwarfs. . . to unite our people once and for all. We were going to Laketown for the ceremony." I lied through my teeth as a small smile came to the Kings face.

" Oh really? Well, that marriage will never last will it? Who would kill the other first? The regal Elf with a stick always up her ass or the stupid Dwarf that does not know a thing about the world outside of his own mountain? And who is this poor lad that you will be marrying?" The king asked as I looked back at the group and saw that Fili was started to move to the front of the group.

" That would be I." Thorin said as my head spun around so that I could see him raise his hand.

" Well well, look at the two happy couple. Don't you think that they will make a good couple?" The laughter of a thousand different goblins could be heard echoing through the caves. " Wait!" A screams from the king came as he came down from his thrown and moved straight to Thorin with thundering footsteps.

" _Fuck_." I hissed as I could see Thorin's eyes widening.

" You. I know you! Thorin Oakensheild." The king said with a smile as he looked at the others in the group. " There is a wonderful bounty for your head Oakensheild. Looks like you will not be getting to your wedding after all." He smiled as he looked over to one of the smaller goblins beside of him. " Send word to the Pale Orc that we have his bounty waiting for him." He said as the creature instantly took off.

" No!" I screamed out as I tried to attack the small creature as he ran past, tried to grab the little thing, that's when the Golic king took me into the air and starred at my branding. The small messenger stopped in his place.

He starred at it with a thick smile as he looked down at me and then looked back at the branding as he took in a breath and placed it onto my arm, showing the numbers on my wrist forming onto it. A deep blue color I starred out in horror as the numbers formed more and more until they were completely clear and almost glowing from my wrist. My numbers would tell my story, my numbers would tell everyone who I was. I tried to shake out of the monsters hand, I tried kicking and swinging, but it did nothing but make him grip harder onto my wrist, making me hold in a deep scream as he dropped me to the ground and I could hear him laughing as well.

" Also tell him that we have one of his whores as well." The king said to the messenger as he looked down at me. " Slave number 24601. An elven whore. What luck would the Pale Orc have to find and capture an elf and then be able to sell her out to however he wanted? I have heard that there is good money in selling out Elf's." He said as he knelt down and looked at my body up and down and he ran a finger over my frame.

" Do not touch me again!" I spat at him as he took another look at me with such anger on his face. The others were starting to get rowdy around him so with a smile he looked back down at me, lifting me from the ground that I was laying on and threw me at the pile of goblins.

" I do not think that the Pale Orc would mind too much if you boys had your way with her until he came to retrieve his things." The Pale Orc said as the company, even Thorin started to scream.

" Stop it!" I screamed as they started to rip my clothing off.

" The Goblin Clever!" Someone said from the other side of the area and everyone stopped dean int heir tracks, dropping me to the ground as the King jumped back onto his thrown.

" Kill them! Kill them all!" He screamed as I could hear the sound of a whip being cracked onto skin, the sound of fighting instantly erupting. " Cut off their heads!" The king screamed and instantly it seemed like there were a thousand swords around my neck. " Besides her! She is good leverage." The king said with a smile as a white light appear out of no where and sent everyone falling to the ground.

It seemed so welcoming and so warm and nice that I thought for just a second that I had passed into the other world that many speak about and saw the warm white light that everyone who had come back from that world has said that they have seen. I smiled as I looked into it and somehow found Gandalf standing at the other side of it yelling at us. This is when I knew that I had not passed onto the other side, but instead Gandalf had saved me and the rest of the company from certain death. From what I know he is pretty good at doing that kind of stuff. He was yelling and in this distraction, I instantly pushed others off of me and ran for my weapons. Pulling up my sword an nearly throwing it into it's case still around my waist and taking up my bow and arrow, wrapping them both around my body and then started to throw the weapons behind me.

" Take your weapons! Fight!" Gandalf said as the ticking of swords coming together started. Once all of the weapons had been distributed, I smiled as the goblins started to come after me.

" You a dead, Girl." The Goblin said with a smile as I could feel my face giving a very disturbing smile in return.

" You really should not have tried touching me earlier. It brings out my-" I said as I instantly punctured his stomach and spun my body around, cutting him in half. "- my _crazy _side." I hissed as I looked around, spun my sword and around sliced the head off of another.

" Follow me!" Gandalf screamed as the others started to follow him.

" Aw but this was just starting to get fun!" I screamed as I ran from behind at the end of the group.

" I think they broke her." Dori yelled to Kili as he pulled on my shirt.

" Aye, I would agree." Kili yelled back, making sure that I kept coming along. All I could do was smile, my animalistic side was showing.

" Just make sure that she keeps up!" Dori yelled back as Kili look at me with concern.

" I am fine. Really. Just getting a little-" I stabbed another goblin who was charging. " a little carried away." I smiled as a arrow came whizzing past my head. " Oh and now they are using arrows. Goodie." I hissed as another one came straight for my head and I knocked it away with my sword.

The group was split up into two different groups. It was almost evenly split up too. I could hear Fili from below us, I knew his sounds so well not that I could hear it even from this. As long as I could hear him and knew that he was fine, I would fight on. We all came to the same passing and could see that the Goblins were coming from one end and the other, we were being surrounded by all different sides. I somehow ended up between the two brothers and we took our swords and were ready to battle, though it would mean certain death. That's when Thorin did something that was genius, even for a Dwarf, " Cut the ropes!", he screamed and as we all looked at him for only a split second we all started to react and I split one rope right in half and the brothers went for the others and we went plunging down towards the ground below. Goblin's who had been using ropes to come at us were caught up in the falling that was happened and we made a quick landing towards another opening which without even thinking we all made a run for.

I did not think about how little air I was getting to my body, I did not care that I could still feel the blood rushing from my head and how dizzy I felt, all I wanted was to get out of here and kill every goblin that came in my way. But then something happened that made me fall back into Fili's strong arms. The goblin king broke through the wooden planks that we had been running on and came up right in front of the group. There was no way that we were going to be able to get around this one. But in front of the giant goblin, Gandalf stayed perfectly calm and did not even flinch as the giant was screaming at him. When the king said " There is no way for you to get yourself out of this one, Wizard." is when I think that Gandalf had enough for this goblin and took his sword and sliced it right through the goblin's fat stomach and the dead king fall to the ground, breaking all of the beams that had been keeping us up and sent us falling to the ground below.

I could feel myself screaming as I gripped onto Fili's arm and closed my eyes. I first of all hated heights, falling from them was like a nightmare to me. We were going rather fast, but as we went down it started to get narrower and narrower so we started to loose speed and when we finally landed it was rather gentle, though I was thrown from Fili's grip and completely out of the debris and rubble of the bridge we had been standing on and was yards from Gandalf, who somehow was also out of most of the debris. Though I was in agony, my ribs were starting to kill and I could feel myself getting dizzier and dizzier, as Gandalf moved straight to me he could see the wound on my head. But as he started to look at it in detail a loud bang came from where the group had been and the groans got louder and louder. As we both looked back over we found that the dead goblin king had landed on them, though they were all alright. We both tried to hide our laughter as he looked back down at me.

" Gandalf!" Kili screamed from his place and pointed upward to the thousands of goblins that were running down to come after us.

" We need to get out of here! The only hope that we have is the sunlight!" Gandalf screamed as he helped me to my feet, as I reached to the ground and picked up all of the arrows that had abounded my basket and my sword. " Fili, help her and make sure that she stays awake. Kili! Protect your brother and Fili!" Gandalf screamed as he started to pull the others out of the debris and I learned onto the stone walls as Fili and Kili rushed over.

" With my life, Gandalf." Kili replied with as they passed one another.

" Why is it that whenever I need help it is because I am bleeding to death from my upper part of my body?" I asked as Fili placed my arm around his shoulder.

" Because you need some strong Dwarfs to come and be your knights." Fili said with a smile. " You will be fine, it's not even that bad."

" You do not have to lie to me." I said with a thin smile.

" Come on now!" Gandalf screamed as we started to run through the small tunnel and made our way to the end of the cave and into the sunlight. We could hear the screams coming from deep within and though I wondered what in the world was going on, I did not fret on it as we made it into the woods that was around us.

Fili placed me near one of the trees as Gandalf was counting and saying the names of each of us that had escaped from the group. I got a wider and wider smile with each and every name that I heard. It meant that another person that I cared about had made it out of the hellhole safe and sound. Fili and Kili were staying right at me side as they tried to stop the bleeding with whatever they could find. I was not worried about the blood though, it was my ribcage that was causing me the worst pain of my life. Even the littlest of breathing hurt. As Gandalf turned around and started to recount I looked around to see that Bilbo really was not there.  
" Bilbo?! Where is Bilbo?" Gandalf screamed.

" He left when we were all being capture, just disappeared." Nori said.

" Well he must have-" I winced as I moved from the tree. " had a place to rescue us, or he thought that he did. We would never just leave us."

" Let us all face it. Our Burglar has not thought of anything besides his warm bed and his books since the moment that he left his home and now he has left us to die. We will not be seeing from our Burglar again." Thorin said from the front of the group as he looked down at all of us.

" No." I shook my head as I looked to Fili. " We cannot just leave him in there! He will die for sure!" I said as I looked from face to face.

" I'm right here!" Bilbo said as he moved from out of no where to the front of the group.

" Oh thank the gods!" I smiled as he smiled over at me.

" Why did you come back?" Thorin asked as he tilted his head at our Hobbit.

" I know that you do not think much of me and yes, I do think about Bag End a lot. My bed, my books, because that is where _I _belong, that is my home. See, you do not have a home, it was _taken _from you, and I will help you get it back, if I can." Bilbo said with a smile as he looked from face to face.

" How did you get out of there?" I asked as I tried to move over to the half-ling but drooped back onto a tree that was beside of me.

" Gandalf, she needs help, _now_." Kili said as he gave me a look of pure concern as Fili took my shoulder to make sure that I would not fall to the ground. Before Gandalf could help though, the howls of Wargs could be heard coming from where we had just come from and I screamed my wrist started to burn and the blue branding on my wrist started to glow once again.

" Out of the fire. . ." Gandalf said.

" And into the fire!" Thorin said as he looked at his group. " Run!" He roared as we all started to make a break for in deeper into the woods.


	10. Chapter 10

We should have known from the beginning that it was not going to end well, I mean there was very little land to begin with and they were riding _wargs. _There was no way in the world that we were going to outrun them once again! One time was lucky, the second time it would not happen like that. I felt like my wrist was burning off as we kept running and I was running just to keep from the burning getting worse. My breathing was heavy and as we made it to the end of all land I spun around to see that they were right on our tracks. I looked from one place to another, looking for a place to run, looking down at the ground below to see that there would be no way for us to live from that kind of a drop and then looked above. The pine tress that were all around us would made the perfect place to hide out, even if it would be for a long time. Just as I was thinking this Gandalf was as well because the next second he was yelling for everyone to get into a tree.

I was one of the last ones up with both Fili and Kili helping me into the tree that I would have been able to get into so easily before. As I smiled as I was able to get into the branch that was right below the brothers, I looked down to see that Bilbo was too short to be able to even reach a branch. I panicked as I moved so that I was laying with my stomach on the branch and got my bow as close to the Hobbit as I possibly could as he latched onto it and I pulled him into the branch as fast as I could and held onto him to make sure that he would not be able to fall from it at any moment. We smiled as we looked around to see that everyone else was settled into a tree, but I was still going everything that I could to not scream at the top of my lungs.

" Is _that _your branding?" Bilbo asked as my numbers shown through the dusk light, I tried to cover it with my sleeve.

" It hurts so bad, Bilbo, it feels like they are doing it over and over again." I lightly cried out as I closed my eyes as tightly as I could and rested my head on the tree and tried to take in some deep breaths.  
" It will pass." Bilbo whispered as he tried to comfort me.

" I hope that this too shall pass." I said as I motioned to the whole situation that we were in.  
" It will. It will." Bilbo said as my eyes were still closed and I could see a flash of light slash beside of me and fade.

" What just happened?" I asked as I looked to the next tree over to find Bilbo throwing pine cones that were on fire at the ground before the Wargs could come for them.

" Gandalf, you are amazing." I smiled as he threw a pine cone of fire to me and I started to light them and Bilbo threw them. All I could do was smile as I looked up to Kili and Fili.

" Hey Kili! Think fast!" I yelled as I threw one that was on fire to him and could hear the confusion that was coming from the two of them as they watched Bilbo throw the ones that were on fire towards the ground and then they understood.

But the wargs jumped the ring of fire that we had made and they made their way straight for us. First they tried to jump up the tree and get us, but when that did not work, they started to instead just start to try and knock the trees down, sending us right over the edge and to our deaths in that way. Gandalf was doing something as I and most of the others looked for another way to survive this. I was in a panic once again and could feel my heartbeat running through my skull. If we jumped from the trees we would be ripped to pieces by the wargs and sliced by the orcs. If we stayed in the trees we would be sent to our deaths from them falling over. There was no way to get out of this! I looked from one face to the other and could see that I was not the only one that was noticing this. I grabbed onto Bilbo tightly as our tree started to rock and hide my screams in his hair as I looked up and for the first time in year I saw the face of the Pale Orc.

" Thorin, no!" Fili yelled into the next tree over as we both looked around to see that he had jumped from the tree and was walking right for the Pale Orc, sword drawn.

" What is he thinking?!" I yelled as Bilbo and myself looked from one to the other.

" We have to help him." Bibo screamed as a warg sent the king to the ground. While our tree was shaking and was on the verge of falling, everyone else was jumping into anther tree Bilbo and I jumped from the tree and onto the ground.

" Ireth!" Fili screamed at the top of his lungs as he called for me.

" Stay there! Hang on!" I screamed back to him as I could see the look in his eyes, desperation and fear. It was a look that I was not used to seeing and did not want to see ever again after tonight.  
" Bring me his head." The Pale Orc said and his voice sent chills through my body. " And _my _girl." He said as he saw me. I wave of panic washed over my body as I started to shoot down anything that came towards us.

" You take the orc, I will make sure that the Warg's do not come after you." I said as Bilbo nodded and before the orc's sword could connect with Throin's head, Bilbo's sword got in between the two.

I pulled out arrows and started to shoot down each and every one of the of them down. I could feel the smile that was coming to my face but the sounds of Thorin's screaming sent me out of my trance to see that there was something horribly wrong. But the others were starting to be able to get out of their trees and were coming to our aid. That's when their the loss of blood or the pain coming from the wrist finally sent me to the ground near Thorin's body. I kept shaking my head and trying to make sure that I stayed away, that was always the main thing when you were dying, was to stay awake, or that is what I had heard atleast. It's always stay awake. The living wargs were running off and I could feel that the burning within my wrist was starting to subside. Fili was first to my side as he pulled me into his chest.

" Hey." I smiled up at him as he started to push the hair out of my face and took the bow from my hands.

" You were foolish for doing that, you know that right?! You could have gotten yourself killed!" Fili yelled as he looked down at me. Then something happened that neither of us were expecting. We were lifted into the air. I thought about screaming but it took too much as we claws came away from around us to find that we were sitting on the back of an eagle. Kili was placed beside of us.

" I am so sorry Fili, I tried to protect him. I really did." I said as I could feel myself weeping. " But we did not get there soon enough. He is alright though, right? I mean he is fine?" I asked as I could feel my head nodding.

" Thorin!" Kili screamed as he looked for his uncle.

" Yes, of course he is fine, you foolish little girl. It is you that we are worried about." Fili smiled as he tried to keep wound clean, it had been awhile since it had bleed.

" Good. Good. I am glad to hear that." I smiled as I nudged my head into Fili's chest, he felt so warm. " I'm happy to see that you are safe too." I whispered as I allowed Fili's scent to fill my lungs.

" How is your pain?" Fili asked softly as he brushed the hair out of my hair once again.

" I do not have any." I smiled lightly. " It has all left my body." I shrugged with a smile as I looked up to the stars that were slowly starting to disappear into the night.

" That cannot be good." Fili whispered to his brother.

" Gandalf!" Kili screamed ahead of us.

The whirling of air around us made me feel colder as I got as close to Fili as I could and he wrapped his jacket around my body as he could feel me shaking. I looked up and into the sky and started to tell him each and every name of the stars and consolations that I knew from the nights when Elrond would bring me outside and we would look up at the stairs and he would teach me about all of them. Fili entertained me and allowed me to go on and on because it meant that I was still awake. I tried to point them out, but there was nothing more than I could do than point my finger in the direction that they were in. Yes, I knew that I was dying, but I tried to keep mine and the brothers sprites up by not acknowledging it.

When we finally landing, Fili lifted me into his arms and I knew that when he placed me on the ground that I was beside our fearless leader. Gandalf was using his magic on him and I could hear the coughing that was coming from the inside of the Dwarf and smiled when he finally started to talk once again as he asked about Bilbo and then turned onto his side to see me.

" Hello there. . . my husband." I laughed a little as I started to cough.

" Gandalf!" Thorin hissed as the wizard placed his hands onto my chest.

Instantly my eyes shut tightly and I could feel my chest heaving upward. It was like everything inside of me was nice and warm, it was like touching a beam of sunlight and it felt so comforting. I could feel the smile that was forming on my face, though I could not stop it if I tried. I thought of Elrond back at home doing this to me and wondered if he would be alright if he had to bury me. But when I finally opened my eyes once again all I could see with Gandalf and Thorin looking down at me. The smile on my face did not fade though, I was thrilled to see these two as well and knew that they were alright.

" Hello there." Thorin smiled as he helped me to my feet.

" Where if the Hobbit?" Thorin asked as Bilbo stood beside of me and we both must have looked like kids that were in trouble. " You." He said as he looked over to Bilbo. " Didn't I tell you that you had no place where. That you would case nothing but trouble since the moment that you stepped foot out of your little hole in the hills? And you." He said as he shot me a look that was sent right down to my soul. " I have told everyone that I have ever known that an Elf would never do anything to help us. They are all greedy and all they want is to help themselves. . . I have never been so wrong in my life about either of you." He said as he brought us both into a hug.

That is when Thorin then looked out to see the sun was starting to come up and from afar he could see what we had came this whole far for. The mountain and their forgotten gold that they wanted to get back to so badly. He and the other Dwarfs all moved in closer to the edge of the cliff that we had been place on as Bilbo, Gandalf, and myself all stayed where we were and just smiled at the rising sun as they looked at their long forgotten home. I had never seen all of them so happy like this before, they all seemed to be in a good mood and they all seemed to not mind the fact that it was rather chilly up here. That's when it hit me, right then and there, it was cold as ice up here. It was just starting to dawn, it was clear as the day and I could see clouds coming from afar. Snow was coming.

" Ireth! Come see!" Kili said as he waved his hand towards me.

" Well. Common then Bilbo, lets go see this mountain that we have nearly died for." I smiled as I placed my hand onto his shoulder and pulled him along.

" It's beautiful, isn't it Foolish one?" Fili said with a smile as he placed his arm around my body and pulled me in front of him, I leaned back and rested my head onto his chest.

" Is that my new name? Foolish one?" I said with a smile as I saw Kili smile.

" Well that and maybe a few other names when you two are alone." He said with a wink.

" You are so luck that I do not have my bow." I hissed as he automatically turned and looked back at the mountain.

" Be careful what you say around her, Brother, I really think that she will kill you one day because you tell her the wrong thing." Fili said with a laugh as I nodded, though I would never hurt my dear friend.

From behind a roar of some kind of creature came and I instantly went from where I was and took up my bow from the ground as many of the others did the same thing. There was no way that I was going to be killed by some form of an animal after I had just survived my second time of nearly being killed this month. So when the giant black bear finally showed himself from the coming trees and wildlife I took aim for the creatures eye. It would be a direct hit that would kill the beast instantly, no pain and more importantly it would not make the beast angry and come and attack us. As I and Kili both took aim Gandalf came between up and placed both of our bows the the ground as the bear stood up on his back feet and transformed into a man. I could feel my eyes widening and could see the eyes of all of the others widening as well.

" What the hell?" I asked as I looked over to Gandalf and back to the man that was now standing before us.

" Beorn, wonderful to see you once again." Gandalf said as he moved from between us and hugged the man.

" Gandalf the Grey, I did not think that I would be seeing you for quite a long time! How have you been my dear friend?" The man that I guess was named Beorn asked with a smile on his face as he looked back to our group.

" Again, what the hell?" I asked as I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.

" Everyone this Beorn. He is a shape shifter of the land." Gandalf said as all I could do was nod.

Soon we all felt rather at home with Beorn as he brought us back to his home in the woods that looked rather small from the outside but turned into a huge home on the inside. With a smile we all accepted the food that we was giving us and the hospitality that came with being indoors. I personally felt like I could have slept for days at a time without even getting out of bed. So when finally night fell and after our drinks and food was all well and over with, I called it quits for the night and found one of the many bedroom and called it my own.

It may have been because of the fact that the Dwarfs loved to drink and kept filing my cup up with more and more alcohol or because I just did not give a damn about where my clothes wound up, I just started to strip them all off and looked at myself, from what I could see, in the mirror that was made for a man. I looked horrible. I had been able to get most of the blood out of my hair and off of my face in the sink before lunch, but I would need a shower to be able to get it all out. I sighed as I placed myself in bed every so gently because even though Gandalf had healed them, my ribcage still hurt. I could feel myself drifting off to bed when the door opened and in walked Fili who had stayed out there to listen to everyone's stories and singing and more then anything else to have a few more drinks. With a smile he knelt down beside of me at my bedside and gave me a kiss on my forehead where my cut was healing and it was so light and careful that I could barely feel it.

" You have been through a lot today." Fili stated.

" Yes, so have you." I shrugged from my bed as I wrapped my blankets around my body tighter.

" Are you always like this?" He said with a smile as he looked down at me.

" Like what?" I laughed back at him as he mimicked the way that I was laying.

" Oh Fili, you have been though a lot like I have today, though I nearly died _twice_ for some Dwarfs that most do not trust – did not trust before today – got a gash into my head that nearly killed me, and went toe to toe with some orcs including the one that enslaved me. But no, you have been through a lot too." He said with a smile as he shook his head and all I could do was smile and sigh at him.

" What did you come in here for?" I tried to act made but the only thing that I could do was smile.

" To tell you that Thorin does not want us sleeping in the same bed anymore." Fili said with a smile.

" Well then why are you smiling about this? That means that you will not be here anymore?" I asked as I looked at him with so many questions in my head.

" There are no other opened beds unless I slept with him, which he knows better than to do. So guess who has a sleeping buddy tonight, if you will allow it." Fili said with a smile as I unturned the blankets and he started to remove his clothing and got into bed with me.

We got in as close as we could to one another and I wrapped his arms around my body and could finally feel at ease once again as I drifted into sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Warning!  
This is the first **_**real **_**rated M chapter. **

**Do not go past this point if you do not want sexual content.**

**( It's my first time writing this kind of stuff so please**

**go easy on me! )**

For once I was not awoken by an Inn master hitting me and telling me that we were opening, or knowing that I would have a thousand different chores to help others with, or falling down into a pit of goblins, or even feeling like I was going to freeze to death. No, this was a much better note with Fili sitting on top of me and kissing from my lips all the way to my neck and then back up. I smiled up at him in confusion as he stopped for a second to smiled back down at me was I waved up to him. I could see the look of desire on face as the sun shinned through the window. Fili moved back to his place on my neck which sent shivers up and down my spine.

" Well then, good morning to you too." I said as I laced my fingers around his hair. " And where did all of _this _come from?" I moaned out as he hit a spot in my neck that sent a wave of pleasure down my body.

" I had a dream about you and you can guess the rest." He said as he pressed himself onto me and I knew _just _what he was talking about.

" Oh, I see, and what happened in this dream?" I smiled as his hand started to work it's way up my shirt and I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him in closer.

" Allow me to show you." He winked as he nearly ripped off my shirt and my bra was not far behind.

Every time that I would try to move and every time that I would try and take a layer of his clothing off my hands would be batted away until finally he took them both into one of his strong hands and placed them above my own head as he sucks and nipped on my nipples like he had before. I had to use every bit of strength in my body that I had not to scream out his name from where I lay below him. Fili moved from my breasts and slowly lowered my panties and started to lick between my tights, starting out slow and getting faster and faster with every muffled moan that he heard. My hips bucked every time that he would reach one spot and when I thought that I would never be able to survive another single moment he placed his fingers deep inside of me.

" You like that?" He questioned as he used his thumb to pleasure my clit and thrusted two more inside me.

" Oh fuck Fili!" I moaned out as he smirked down at me and my hips bucked. I was not going to make it much longer. " I am so close!" I said as I bit into his neck to not wake the others. Everything that he was doing was so new but felt so right. Then with one more deep thrust could feel every muscle I had clench up and send me over the edge.

Before I could even come down Fili was already kissing me over and over again and I could feel that he was getting me back to where I had been before. Rubbing and licking and biting and kissing, every single thing that he knew he was showing me. I finally ripped my hands out of his vice grip and shoved his pants down past his knees and wanted so badly to take all of him inside of me in that moment. I could see the list in his eyes and knew that he wanted to exact same thing.

" Please Fili, I want it." I said as he smirked down at me as we both took in one anothers glory and he finally almost teasingly slow pushed himself into me.

There was no pain that I had heard some of the human girls complain about, there was nothing but pure and utter pleasure as I felt my nails rake down Fili's back as I tried to pull him in closer and closer. He knew the ways to tease a girl. I begged and tried to push him back in, but he was almost having fun with this as I could see the look in his eyes that he was trying to do this. But that did not last for more than a minute when finally I started to moan out his name which I had been trying to keep as quite as possibly finally came out as a scream. Soon enough though he was slamming my body right into the headboard.

" Fuck! Fili!" I screamed as he slammed into my body, the only other sounds in the whole house was the sound of our skin hitting one another.

" Ireth! Oh fuck!" Fili moaned as he kept his eyes looking straight into mine.

" Fili!" I could feel the waves of pleasure hitting me with every thrust and every move that he made sent me closer and closer to coming once again. " Oh my god!" I screamed as I could feel my body clench up once again and not too long after I started to come Fili filled me with his seed.

Soon we were wrapped back into one anothers arms and smiling as I was looking down at his neck to see the newly formed bruise on his neck. Fili was playing with my hair with a smile on his face that did not seem to go away as I could see the sun rising from the window. Fili just seemed so happy to see me around that it made me smile as we could hear the others were making their way into the kitchen area. Soon breakfast would be started and they would all be wondering where we were. But I really did not think that it mattered in the least to the two of us as we just took in the silence and comfort of a bed and one another while we had it.

" We really should get up, they will start wondering what we are doing in bed so late." I smiled as he rolled his eyes.

" Let them, they all heard what we were doing in here. They can all think what they want about us." He smiled as he started to braid up some of my hair.  
" Are you trying to make me seem more like your guys?" I smiled as he moved from one braid to another.

" Maybe, you seem a little too much like an outcast." Fili laughed as there was a bang on the door.

" Fili! Ireth! Wake up! You will miss breakfast!" Kili said through the door and I could almost _feel _the sick smile that was on his face.

" In a minute!" I yelled back as I allowed Fili to finish his braid. " You know, I found this beautiful river not too far from here, I was thinking about going and bathing after breakfast." I smiled as I started to get all of my clothing back on.

" What is it with you and bathing so much?" Fili asked with such confusion in his eyes.

" Well first of all I am covered in your bodily fluids in which I would _love _to get off as soon as possible, no offense," I smiled as Fili placed his hand on his heart and gasped as if he was really hurt by what I had said. " and secondly I do not want to be smelt by anyone who could come up on us before they can even hear or see us!" I hissed as I threw Fili's shirt to him and walked over to him and covered the bruise that I had given him with his hair.

As we left our room I could see the smile that was on each and every Dwarf's face as we came into the kitchen to see that all of the Elders were sitting at the small table and everyone else was all around the room, sitting in different places. I tried to hide the blushing that I knew had already come to my face with my hair. I moved around the group as I took a bun from the table and sat beside of Kili on the kitchen counter. Everyone was dead silent and were all smirking and smiling to one another as they looked from me on one whole side of the kitchen to Fili on the other. I could feel the embarrassed smile coming over my face and knew that Kili was going to say _something _about it. I could already tell from the little time that we had spent together that he was going to say something. But then Bilbo appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with a big smile on his face as he looked around the group to see that everyone besides Gandalf was here.

" Well, how did everyone sleep last night? I know that I slept like a rock." Bilbo smiled as he looked around the group.

" Why don't you ask Fili and Ireth how they slept last night?" Dori asked as my head whipped around. I could not believe that he had said that.

" Well I know something was _like a rock_ last night. But it was not Fili's sleeping that is for sure." Kili added in as I hit him upside the head.

" Yeah, we had sex. Do you want to hear about how hard your brother fucked me?" I whispered into the young Dwarf's ear as all of the color left his face and I leaned back with a smile on my face as I took a bite out of my bun. Kili was starting to look like a ghost.

" These are amazing, who made them?" I asked with a smile as they all look over at me with such curiosity as my eyes made contact with Fili who had the biggest smile on his face.

" Bumbur." Bofur said as he pointed to his brother.

" Fili, come for a walk with me." Thorin hissed as he got up form the table and moved to the doorway without saying another word.

" Alright Uncle. . ." Fili said as he looked from face to face and then to mine as he moved over to me and gave me a quick kiss. " I will be back as soon as possible." He smiled as he ran his fingers through my fiery hair.

" Make sure of it, if I am not here you know where I will be." I smiled as he moved to the doorway to his uncle who was already yelling for him.

" What is _that _all about?" I asked as Kili shrugged.

It seemed like forever had passed so finally I said my goodbyes to the group and made me way into the wild once again and just dipped my toes into the cold water and used most of my vest to wash off my body. I almost feared getting to far into the cold water as I started to have flashbacks onto my vision of the future and knew that it was still going to happen soon enough. Water was not a good friend right now. But the sun was nice and warm and as I bathed into the sun for what seemed like centuries I could hear the distant sounds of voices and smiled as I knew one of them so well. I instantly got up and started to move in closer and closer to Fili and Thorin and moved into the trees above to be able to get a better hearing place to know what they were saying to one another.

" You do not understand Uncle, I think that I-" Fili said, his hands going one way and another.

" Of course I understand, Fili! I understood with Marcy and that Hobbit girl from the shire as well. I know that you get caught up in every girl that comes into your path and it clogs your head up! Fili, you must stop thinking about this Elven girl, you have to cut her right off. She is no good for you." Throin said in his calming voice.

" What are you talking about? Ireth is not clogging my mind from anything, I care about her and is that not all that should matter. I care about her and have such deep feeling for her and she has the same about me! I will not just cut her off! She means too much to me." Fili yelled at his uncle and I instantly felt like I was trespassing on something that I should not hear about.

" No Fili. You only care about her because of her beauty, you only want her because she is around and now you have gotten her. She is something different and something of such great beauty that you do not know what to do with her. It is understandable, everyone goes through it when they see their first truly beautiful Elf. Forget her, there is no place for her once we get our home back. It is better to do it now rather than to drag this whole thing out." Thorin placed a strong hand onto his nephew's shoulder.

" No place for her?! What are you talking about, of course there will be a place for her!" Fili said as he tried to slap Throin's hand off of him but could not do it.

" No Fili, you are going to be king, you need to marry a Dwarf girl, someone that our people can look up to. Not some whore that you found in an Inn." Thorin hissed as he turned from Fili and started to walk away. " End it with her, now."

" But. . .-" The look in Fili's eyes hurt even me.

" That is a command from your king Fili." Thorin hissed as he did not even turn around to see the look on Fili's face.

" Yes." He whispered as I turned from the tree and started to move back to the house from a different way.

I could not feel a thing, I did not know what to do or what to say. All I could do was sit in the kitchen from the short cut that I had found and stare into the tea that Bifur had given me. Though they still did not know about my hearing I could hear the others talking about what they thought was wrong with me. I tried to shut myself in and did not look up when I heard the door open and two pairs of feet walk through the doorway. I refused to make eye contact with Fili as he asked me to move back outside with him though I could feel the eyes of everyone else watching from the windows. I felt so numb as he talked to me and I could not believe it when Fili seemed perfectly normal.

" Ireth. . ." Fili said as he look up and into the sky for some form of help.

" I heard everything you know, we could. . .we could hide it from him. We could. . . we could keep it a secret. Act like we do not care about one another when we are in front of people and then we can be together when we are alone! Fili. . ." I whispered as I took his face into my hands. " I care so much about you."

" No Ireth. He is right. You were just anther prize that I needed to take for my own. You were just another woman to me." Fili said as he slapped my hand away from his face.

" You don't mean any of this! Fili, what happened to everything that we have felt for one another, you cannot tell me that that was all a lie, that everything that we have felt for one another meant nothing to you. Please tell me that _I _meant something to you." I begged as I could feel the tears coming to my eyes.

" But I do, I am next in line for the thrown and there is no way that I can have an elf as my queen, a slave for that matter. No Ireth, please, you are just making this harder on yourself. If you want to leave the company right now, I know that no one will hold it against you." Fili said as he left me.

" And go where?" I screamed as he stopped dead in his tracks at the doorway. " Back to Rivendell where all the Elfs will treat me as they did before I left? Like an outcast halfbreed? Back to my homeland that has been destroyed? Or maybe you just want me to go back to being a little whore that everyone seems to think that I am and go back to the Inn that you found me in?! Which one would you like me to do, _my Prince_?" I screamed at him as he looked over his shoulders and then walked back into the house, leaving me completely alone.

Once again my life seemed so blank and that t here was nothing in front of me. I felt so alone. I stormed into the woods that were around and fell to the ground and just cried everything that I had out. I should have known that it would have never worked out, how could someone be so nice to another person without there being repercussions in the end? I sobbed for what seemed like most of the day until I could hear the sounds of footsteps coming through the woods. I tried to hide the fact that I had been sobbing like a baby, but when I finally saw that it was only Bilbo, I could not hide it anymore. He wrapped his arms around me and allowed me to let everything out.

" What are you even doing here? How did you find me?" I sobbed allowed my hair to cover my face.

" The rest of them are going to the river you talked about earlier and I did not want to go there with all of them. . . no thank you." He said with a smile that could light up the night's sky. " So I was walking through the woods, trying to waste time when I found a little Elven girl who looked like she needed my help. And I think that you still do." He said as he whipped the tears from my eyes.

" I. . . I think that I may have been in love with him Bilbo. Then. . . then this happens!" I cried out as I could hear the noises of the boys coming back through the woods.

" You know what I have always heard?" He asked as I shrugged. " The best form of revenge is to be your happiest when they are around." He said and as the others came around the corner.

I could not help but to smile and whip the tears from my face and slowly started to smooth out my clothes. This may have been the best advice that anyone had given me before and trust me, I was going to use it as much as I possibly could.


	12. Chapter 12

" Well common then! You need to learn how to fight with that thing if you think that you are really going to be using it!" I smiled as I picked up my sword and held it in front of me.

" I really do think that I should even have a sword, let alone should I be learning how to use one. I am really not a violent person!" Bilbo replied as he raised his sword with both hands.

" Well then what are you going to do if you are cornered by three Orcs, all the rest of us are battling, and you only have your sword but you _don't _know how to use it? Just start swinging and hoping that you hit someone?" I asked as I started to move closer to him taking aim and Bilbo swinging his sword at me. " I will take that as a yes." I sighed as I moved the hair out of my face once again and could feel the braids that I had not taken out yet hanging in my hair.

We took hours at a time just trying to get Bilbo to be able to fight, it seemed like a hopeless cause. The poor little Hobbit did not have a single hurtful born in his whole body as we sat in the middle of the woods both eating at some apples that we had picked on our way out here. The last time that we had fought he actually fought back pretty hard and we called it a draw and decided that it would be enough for the night. It had been a long night with me sleeping alone in my room, I could not get to sleep for the life of me. I felt like hell, I was sore and had too many cramps running through my body, my head was pounding, and I knew that there were bags under my eyes from not being able to get enough sleep.

Though on the outside I looked just as happy as I could be, on the inside I felt like I was dying all over again. All I wanted to do was curl up into a tight little ball and never come out of it. But I refused to do that because that would show defeat. I was going to make it to the end of this journey no matter what happened, no one was going to stop me from doing that. Not even the soon to be king of the land that I was fighting for. I had never been heartbroken before, but I knew that it physically hurt just as much as it did mentally. But as I looked over to Bilbo who knew all of the things that I was going through and I knew that he would be there for me no matter what happened, all I could do was smile at him and try to hide all of the pain that was on the inside.

Bilbo was really trying to do everything that he could to make me feel better. There was something on the inside of him that did not like seeing people in such pain and he wanted to be able to help it if he could. It really did make me happy being out and away from the rest of the group, no matter how much they tried to help me and be there for me they would still be there for Fili more, and just starting to finally be able to reconnect with nature. Bilbo was always telling me about the Shire, the place that he grew up and lived in, how beautiful it was there. I hoped that one day I would be able to make it back to the Shire with him.

" You know, before any of this happen, I mean way back when I was really a child, I did some of the most foolish things. . ." I said with a laugh as Bilbo took out his pipe and started to smoke from it. " I loved animals and nature so much that whenever I was not in school or with my brothers, I would be found out and about in the woods or around the water, where ever I could find life really. I mean there was something that I just loved about wildlife. So slowly I started to bring the animals home like me. It started out simple, ya know, toads and a lone rabbit here and there. Just some wild animals that my mum would shoo back into the wild when I was finally asleep. But then one night Mum came into my room to find that Benny was in there. . ." I started to laugh as Bilbo looked up at me.

" And who may I ask was Benny?" He said with a smile on his face, he knew that it was going to be a good story.

" Oh Benny, he was the first thing that I ever loved." I smiled as I remembered the last.

" Benny huh?" Kili said as he came from the trees. " Tall, pale, and handsome?"

" Small, multicolored, and very very cute. He was an injured raccoon that I found while playing in the woods one day. I brought him home with me and hid him in my room for a good two weeks. He stayed in my closet during the days and at night we played all around my room. Soon though he started to get better, he started to take all of my things and take them back into his little burrow in the closet! And them one day I walked into my closet and I found mine, my both of my brothers, and my mothers crown in the closet in a small little nest and Benny sitting right in the middle!" I laughed as I remembered. " Mother was so mad that she made me take out either Elrond or Elros with me at all times." I sighed as I looked up and into the woods around us. " It was never as fun with them around."

" Oh, I see." Kili said as he sat beside of us, I could not look at him, he and his brother had never looked much alike until now. I had to get up from where I was sitting and started to move around. It was the only thing that kept me from bursting my heart out once again.

" Do you want to get back to fighting?" Bilbo asked but before he could even pick up his sword I shook my head and just starred up at the sky.

" Is she still upset?" Kili whispered to Bilbo.

" She is just amazing at holding it back." Bilbo whispered back, I was so sick of acting like I could not hear every word that they were saying.

" What do _you _want to do, Ireth?" Kili asked as he stood up.

" Trust me when I say that you do not want to know what I truly want to do." I spat as I spun around as Kili tried to meet me face to face.

" No, I want to know, what is it that you want to do on this beautiful day. The others are all well rested and soon we will be moving on from this place. This may be the last day that we have to just do whatever it is we want! There must be something that you want to do, please tell me it!" Kili nearly begged as he kept turning, trying to meet me face to face.

" I really would not do that if I were you!" Bilbo said as he stood up from his place and took another bite from his apple.

" You really want to know what I want to do?" I hissed as I kept spinning around and around, this was starting to feel like a game.

" Yes! Did I not just ask that of you?" Kili asked as finally he took me shoulders and made me face him.

" I want to kill something! I want to beat something to the ground until it cannot move anymore! I want to run away and never come back from this place but then again I want to stay here just to prove to you pricks that I can make it here with you and that not all Elf's are down right evil. I want to scream at each and every one of you until you all understand that I am _not _just an Elf, I'm also a Dwarf just like the rest of you! I sorry that I'm not perfect and I cannot be 100% of just one thing, I have been battling with that all my damn life! I can't change who I am and I will not just because everyone seems to think that I would not be fit to become a queen of _your _people, since I guess that they are not my people! What I want to do is. . .is. . ." I could feel my lips forming the word, but I refused to let it come out. No. I would never say it again. What I wanted, needed, was _Fili_, but he did not love me, did not need me, did not respect me, and did not want me.

" Fight me." Kili whispered as he took his hands off my shoulders and backed up a bit.

" _What_?" I questioned as I looked at him as if he was crazed.

" Fight me." He said as he raised his arms up, the smile that he always seemed to have on his face as missing now.

" No!" I said as I started to walk away from the Dwarf.

" You need to get all of your emotions out, you will be a danger to us all on this journey in the state that you are in. If you want to prove yourself then you have to be in control of your emotions. You need to get them all out and I am just the person to take them out on. Common, hold nothing back and I will to the same with you. Right here, right now." He said as he threw his knife into the tree near where with had been sitting, I took my sword out of it's case and dug it into the ground.

" You're serious about this, aren't you?" I questioned with a thin smiling forming on my face.

" As serious as a Dwarf can get." He said with a thin line of a smile coming to his.

" This should be good." Bilbo said as he took a few steps back to make sure that he would be protected.

" I'm not going to hold back on your just because you are a girl though." Kili said with a smile as I got into a fighting stance.

" Really? Because I am not going to go easy on you just because you are a Dwarf!" I teased as he looked truly hurt.

" See? This is all of the stuff that you needed to get out!" Kili said with a smile as got done into his stance as well. " I think that we are-"

So he looked over to Bilbo I instantly went onto the attack mode and sprung for him, tackling him to the ground and pushing my upper arm over his shoulders to keep him pinned down. I knew that this would not last long as the young Dwarf would have had much more fighting practice than I would. Soon he spun us around so that I was on bottom and that he was on top, his knee pressing into my ribs and with a smile I looked up at him as he asked if I wanted to give up now and rocked my hips back, brought my legs around his body and kicked him off of me as I jumped to my feet. Kili was in shock as his body was up against another tree that was nearby, I smiled as I looked over at Bilbo

" I am still just as bendy as ever!" I smiled as I raised my arms as if I had already won.

" Rule number one to learn from Dwarfs, never turn your back on the enemy." Kili said from behind as he tried to punch me in the head.

Instead I grabbed him by his first, jumped as high as I could in the air and wrapped my legs around his shoulders and sent him to the ground. I pulled from the arm to the shoulder, wrapping his head between my legs and squeezing it tightly. Either he would give up because he was losing air or because he felt like his arm was going to fall off. It would have been either that or he would have had a dislocated shoulder or he would have passed out, either way that would make me the winner either way, but I would have explain to the group why Kili was knocked out cold or his arm was hanging from his shoulder. But I smiled as I could feel him tapping on my legs and allowed him to get a breath of air as I stood from the ground with a smile slowly coming to my face.

" Rule number one to learn from an Elf, always know your enemy's next move before he does." I smiled as I waved him Kili to run after me once again.

As he did I smiled as I looked around and jumped above me to one of the branches that was close enough for me to hop from one to the other and before he even knew what happened I dropped beside of him and punched him right in the stomach, making him fall to the ground. Though it did hurt me to know that I had hurt one of my friends, it also felt so good to be able to get all of the pent up emotions that I had finally out. Though I could see that Kili was in such pain, I gave him out my hand and smiled when he took it and then he did something that I had not been expecting for more than a split second. He used all of his strength that he had and sent me to the ground beside of him and straddled me from above. With a smile on his face he started to tickle me! I was in such a state of shock that all I could do was wiggle around and smack him!  
" Stop it! I swear to you I will kill you for this! Kili! Get off of me!" I yelled as he kept tickling me and my laughter.

" I really do not think that you are in the position to be threatening anyone anymore Dear. Really what I think that you should be doing is sitting back and taking all of this in. This is what you need you know?" Kili teased me as he kept moving his fingers around my waist and I kept hitting him as hard as I could.

" Kili! Please! Kili!" I screamed in between laughing fits. " Get the hell off of me right now!

" What the hell is going on here?" A voice called from behind as Kili got thrown off of my body and thrown back. " And you! How dare you think that it was alright to just sit back and watch that!" Fili hissed as he moved towards Bilbo. I instantly took up my bow and arrows from close beside me and raised it to Fili, afraid for me friends like, but Kili almost instantly made me lower it.

" Brother, we were just fighting, playing really." Kili said as he got to his feet and moved to his brother. " I was tickling her. Nothing more than that." He smiled at his brother as Fili looked over at me and I could feel my heart breaking once again.

" Is this so?" Fili asked as he looked over to me and shot out his hand to help me up. I scowled at him and found my own way up, placing my bow and arrow around my body and placing my sword back to where in belonged in it's case.

" Why the hell do you care again all of a sudden? Common Bilbo, I think that we should get back to the house before someone calls a search party after us. Since we are two people that cannot be trusted alone." I hissed as my friend came to my side and we started to walk away from the two brothers.

Something new washed over me in that moment that I did not understand and did not know if I even wanted to understand. I was so infuriated with him, I wanted do barely to just walk back to them and kick him right where it would hurt, to watch him fall to the ground, and scream at him until my face turned blue and I could not scream anymore. But instead I follow Bilbo, who was now leading the two of us, back to our little hut in the middle of nowhere to find that almost everyone was in the kitchen area smiling and having a good time. Everyone that is, besides Thorin, Gandalf, Balin, and Dwalin who, if I knew, were most likely talking about the way that they were going to be leaving soon. But there was a place for the two of us at the table and like always we felt so welcomed with them.

" Would you like a drink, Miss Ireth?" Beorn asked from his place in the kitchen, it was his night to cook for the rest of us.

" Please, the biggest one that you have and _please _keep them coming." I smiled as the rest of the group instantly starred at me.

" Ireth? Drinking? I thought that I would never see the day!" Bofur said with a smile as Beorn brought me the biggest glass that he had.

" Are you even old enough to drink Lassie?" Gloin said with a smile as he nudged my arm with his.

" Oh trust me, I have been drinking for a pretty long time. You do not deny a drink at the Inn when you are not paying for it." I said with a smile as I took a chug from my glass and allowed the cool liquid to go down my throat.

" You think that you would be able to beat the record then?" Dori asked with a smile coming to his face.

" Record? What record?" Bilbo asked as I kept drinking.

" Drinking record of course." Dori replied as he looked over at me.

" How many?" I said as I slammed my glass down on the table it was already empty.

" Fifteen." Fili said as he came into the hut. " It's my record, no one has been able to beat it."

" Give me another drink!" I yelled as I gave my glass to Beorn.

" Do you think that we are going to see a drunk Elf?" Ori asked to Nori.

" I'm betting on Ireth." Bifur said.

" An Elf being able to out-drink a Dwarf? No way, I'll take that bet!" Dori replied as they both placed down some coins onto the table.

" Count me in, my bets on Ireth." Kili said as he slammed his money down on the table and came and stood behind me. " Sorry Brother."

" My bets on Fili." Dwalin said as he came around the corner and slammed down his coins onto the table with such force it _shook _the table.

" I do not believe that any of you have seen how much an Elf can drink. Especially not our Ireth. My bets on her." Gandalf said as he placed his on the table as well. Soon enough everyone had placed their bets between myself and Fili. Everyone besides Bilbo, who did not bet.

" Well. . . let the games begin!" I said with a smile as I started to chug down my second glass.


	13. Chapter 13

I did not feel a think as I passed five glasses. When I passed ten I raised my glass with Fili and smiled as I watched his face as I allowed all of the alcohol to go down my throat. I knew that I would be able to beat his and most likely double it if I truly wanted to, but that would not happen tonight. No, I was here just to beat this record and put a new one up that everyone would have troubles beating. Soon after my seventh round the rest of the group started to get into drinking as well. It was funny to see the way that they would try and chug down the alcohol like I was and some thought that I would not be able to make it past my next drink, though I did not feel a thing. Though, once I made it past thirteen, I could feel my lips were starting to tingle and that my face was getting a little hotter.

" I think that I may be feeling something." I smiled as they all looked at me in pure shock, they could not believe that I was still able to fully talk and have a conversation. " Anyone want to change their bets while they still can?" I asked with a smile as Kili's hand moved to my shoulder and started to rub it.

" Sorry, 'Reth, they can't change their bets anymore! Not fair to the people that believed in you to begin with! Common, just three more and you will hold the new record!" Kili said as he smiled down at me.

" She cannot do it!" Thorin whispered to Ori.

" I would not doubt her, she has not stopped and I mean she looked just a little intoxicated as it is, I think that she will beat it!" Ori replied as he gave me the thumbs up and smiled over to me as I took another chug and finished my fourteenth. One more and I would share the record tow more and I would _hold _the record.

" We really should not bet against Gandalf." Nori shook his head as he looked down at the money.

" Shouldn't bet against me either!" I smiled as I looked over to Fili. " See, I always win." I could almost see him shrinking in his chair as I got two glasses this time and chugged the first one with a smile.

" Common 'Reth! One more!" Kili cheered as he banged on the table.

" Common Ireth! You can do it!" Bifur cheered with a huge smile on his face.

" I know that you can do this." Bilbo said with a smile as I took the last glass into my hands and chugged it down. The roar that came from the group made me smile as I finished it and slammed it onto the table.

I knew that I started to feel it while I got up and started to feel a little woozy, like someone had tilted the room at a different degree than what I was used to. It wasn't until my seventeenth and final one that my speech started to get a little slurred and I knew that it was time to cut off my drinking. My vision was a little impaired, but I still knew that I would be able to make it to my room just fine. As I stood though, Balin came over and made me a handful of the gold that was on the table.

" Wh-what is this for?" I asked as I learned back onto my chair with a smile coming to my face.

" Well you were a part of the bet no matter how little it seems like it, you deserve a cut." Balin replied with a smile.

" Another drink, Miss Ireth?" Ori asked from the corner, raising his glass in the air.

" Me? No. . . I think that it is time to go to bed for me before I start telling stories about the girls in the Inn and if I keep drinking I think I may actually get _too _drunk." I smiled as the group all raised a toast to me.

" I think that I will return to my bed as well." Bilbo said as he rose from the table and took his place beside of me.

" As should we all. Tomorrow we leave." Thorin said from the end of the table, a scowl still on his face.

" He's just mad because he bet on the wrong person." I whispered to Bilbo with a smile as we turned the comer and made our way through the house to the bedroom area.

" Well, this would be my room. You think that you will be able to make it two doors down without my help?" Bilbo asked playfully.

" No." I said with a smile as I moved down the walls to my room and finally got my hand on the door. " Oh and Bilbo?" I asked as he popped his head out of the doorway.

" Yes, Ireth?" He asked in a playful tone.

" Thank you. . . for not letting me walk out of there alone looking like a fool. . . and. . . and for everything you could have done for me lately. It truly means a lot to me." I smiled as he nodded and shut the door behind him, leaving me in the silence of the empty hallway.

I flopped into my bed and fell asleep almost instantly. It was the first night that I had been able to sleep on my own for a very long time, it was the first night that I had slept through most of the whole night until the sun was coming up in the sky. I did not have any dreams, I did not have any visions, and I am truly thankful for that because most of my dreams lately have involved Fili and each and every time that I wake from a dream I hope and pray that they do not come true. I can never tell the difference between dreams and visions when they both involve me waking up and crying. I was stiff and my head was pounding in my skull like a drum. I tried to smother my aching head under my pillow, but with no luck I started to get out of bed and almost instantly regretted it.

The room was freezing like ice, of course we would have to choose the day where there had been a frost in the air. I sighed as I started to get on all of my clothing, some that I had not worn since we had gotten into this hut, and wrapped every article I had around my body. I sighed as I started to part and comb out my hair with my fingers and was left motionless as I moved my fingers around the tiny braids that I had left in my hair. They were still in place and still so beautiful. I thought about taking them out just to spite Fili, but there was no way that he would even notice something that small from me – especially now that he does not care for me – and left them in as I pulled my hair into a bun as lightly as I could make it.

I was one of the first ones up, the only others that were even coming out of their rooms was Kili and Fili. I smiled at their faces who looked like they were in a world of pain as I passed their rooms and moved into the kitchen where the smell of freshly brewed coffee was sitting and ready for us. Beorn, of course, being the amazing host that he was had made us an amazing breakfast to send us off with. It was pretty good to not have to go out and hunt down an animal and the have to cook it for the rest of the group. I sat down at my normal place during breakfast, the far corner of the kitchen on one of the unused counters. Pouring myself a cut of coffee I leaned my head against the cold of the refrigerator.

" I see that you slept well." Kili said as he came and sat beside of me at his normal spot.

" Like a baby." I smiled as I could feel my eyes falling shut once again as I took a sip of the coffee.

" So tell me, how did you learn to be able to drink like that? You did not even really get drunk and trust me, I have seen many people try to beat my brother's record and none of them even got a half of the way there!" Kili smiled as he placed a soft hand on the swell of my back.

" Practice drinking in the Inn. When someone offers to buy you a pint of something you do not deny them because that is money that is going right into the Inn and you also can't throw it away because that is a waste of perfectly good alcohol." I muttered as I moved my head and looked out the window that had frost on it.

" Looks like it could be a pretty bad day outside." Balin said as he and Dwalin entered the kitchen and almost instantly went in for the food.

" It could possibly snow." I muttered as this got a look from everyone, especially Fili. " Not a very good day for traveling."

" That is the truth." Kili said as he went over to the table and started to fill a plat with food. " Can I get you anything while I'm over here?" He asked with a soft smile as he had filled his plate so high that it was starting to spill over some.

" Just some eggs and fruit if you don't mind. Not too much please." I moaned as I placed with the ties around my vest.

We all ate in silence for the most part, one person would say one thing and the other would reply, but for the most part we all wanted to keep our body heat and wanted to fill ourselves as much as we possibly could. The rest of the group started to slowly come into the room and with each person a new conversation would start and then die right off once again. It seemed like I had one of the more minor hangovers of the whole group. As I shoved off from the counter I placed my plate into the sink and moved for the doorway, hoping that no one would notice that I was leaving. But, of course, that would never happen.

" And where do you think that you are off to so early in the morning?" Fili asked as he pushed the door shut as I took up my bows and arrows and placed them around my body.

" I was thinking about going off for a little shooting and unless you want me to practice here in the house, I would let go of that door." I said as I looked from him to the door.

" Just make sure that you are very focused today, Ireth, if we can prevent your vision from happening it would be for the best. You said that it seemed like snow today and in your vision it was snowing, just please-"

" Why the hell should you care anymore! It's not like you care for me! You used me to get what you wanted and then threw me away like the garbage that _you_ think that I am! Just stay away from me!" I hissed as I threw his hand off of the doorway and stormed out into the woods.

I was so sick on the mind games that Fili was putting me through that for what seemed like hours all I did was hit one of the smaller trees as hard as I could even past the point of where my knuckles started to bleed. I did not scream though I wanted to and when I finally started to go back to shooting all I could do was keep hitting that one spot where my blood was on the tree. I was so full of anger that I did not even hear him come up on me, I just kept shooting at that one spot and could feel the blood coming from my hand. Even when he called out my name in such a low and yet caring tone, I did not stop. I do not know what I was thinking about, I did not know what I was going to do so all I could think of doing was aiming and shooting and ignoring that Dwarf that was trying to have a conversation with me. But then he moved in the way of the tree that I had been shooting and myself.

" Get out of my way, I have a terrible headache and I feel pretty ticked off right now, I really would not test your luck with me right about now!" I hissed as I looked him dead in the eyes.  
" Ireth maybe that would be for the best then! I mean I cannot see you like this, if only would would see what this is doing to Fili, you would understand that-"  
" _Fili_? What this is doing to Fili!? You have got to be kidding me. For the love of fucking Pete." I said as I lowered my bow and kicked the tree that was near me. " I do not care nor do I want to know what Fili feels like right now. I want to rip his heart out like he did mine and thrown it on the ground and step on it. I want to spit in his face and scream at him for hours at a time because of what he did. He used me, Kili! Your brother took from me what I can never give to anyone else and no one seems to understand that. In my culture having sex is something that is so sacred and so special that we do not _trick_ people into it. Hell, if an Elf is raped while they are still a virgin they lose the will to live and leave for Mandos! I do not know if you have such things in your culture, but from the way that your brother puts in he likes to go from one girl to another without even looking back! I feel like I have been betrayed. I feel used. Tell me, can you say that your brother feels this way? Can you say that he has had his heart ripped out from the person that he loves?" I hissed through my teeth as I shot an arrow at a different tree.

" No but-"

" Then does that person that he loves tell him that they still care about him and that they want to protect him?! _No_? I did not think so. So do not tell me that he feels anything like I feel because you would be wrong!" I hissed as Kili came over to me and lowered his bow.

" I am sorry for the things that my brother has put you through, Ireth. I wish that there was some way that I could take your pain from you." Kili said as he took my bow from me and placed it on the ground beside the two of us.

" I do not think that there is a spell in the world to take this pain away. I don't know if I would want it taken anyway." I sighed as I shrugged, forced to look at the brother of Fili.

" And why is that?" He asked with his eyes so filled with questions that had been unanswered for so long.

" Because I was young and in love. Take away the heartbreak and I would just be left with the in love and I do not think that I could bare to be in love with someone that hates me." I sighed as I shook my heart and wrapped my arms around my body, it was rather cold outside.

" I know that he does not hate you. Love is everlasting, it only changes." Kili said with a smile as he wrapped his leather jacket around my body. " You where this for today."

" Oh no, I could not do that, besides how will you keep warm when it. . . if it starts to snow?" I questions as he took my hand into his, picking up my bow, and moving back towards the hut.  
" Well then I guess that we will just have to share it." He said with a playful smile and a wink as he wrapped hand around my hurt one and tried to stop the bleeding.

Soon after we got back we were on the journey once again, though this time we were without Gandalf, who said he had to go off on another journey that had called to him. It felt a little odd going off whole Gandalf stayed back at the hut, but as we parted I hugged and thanked him for everything that he had done to keep me into this group and we both had a little laugh when he told me about the betting money that he had won off of both myself and Bilbo. Gandalf told us to stay on the paths that were in front of us so that we would not get lost. But as we made out way through the woods and in a mostly uphill battle it became harder and harder to see the path as snow started to come down from the sky around us. Every few minutes I looked back to be able to make sure that Kili was alright and as we moved into an opened area that I knew. But as I looked around I felt that something was wrong.

" Kili!" I said as I ran up to him and he starred down at me as I ran up to him as quickly as possible. " Where is all of your jacket? All of your warmer clothing?" I asked as I touched his shoulder, it was freezing.

" I left it back at the hut I guess, I thought that there would be no snow." Kili shrugged as he kept on guard.

" We have to go back and get it, you will _freeze _out here without it!" I said as I looked from face to face and saw that no one was slowing down.

" He already tried that, Uncle said no, that we had already lost too much time. We are just going to live with what we have now." Fili said as he looked away from the two of us.

" Well here," I said as I took off his jacket and wrapped it around his body. " You will need this more than I will. I have all of my layers while you have none. Trust me, this storm is only going to go worse." I sighed as I knew what was going to happen soon enough.


	14. Chapter 14

The freezing snow hitting my body, the way that the wind was unforgivable, as no way to change the future, no matter how hard one person would try, it would only be the things that lead up to it anyway. Ice was forming on my eyelashes from where the snow had started to become water and then turned into ice. I was shaking, though it was not from being cold, it was from the fear of dying. Not because because of the fear of the pain of dying or the unknown after that because unlike any other race, Elfs know what happens to them when they pass on. No, I was afraid for my friends, the company, what would happen to them if I left? I tried to get everything out of my head, tried to stop thinking about my visions and to stop and think about the footsteps that were ahead of me, but every time that I would try and do that something would bring my back to my own memories.

We did not stop for lunch because we were all far to cold to even find a place to stop and there was no place around for us to take shelter from the wind and snow. I went on guard with Dwalin, both on completely different sides of the company, who were bunches together, and though we both had our weapons out, we would have not been a threat to anyone who crept up on us. My bow was shaking and I could not stop it, Dwalin's fingers were turning a horrible blue color and I knew that it if came down to battle he would not be able to shift his weapon to be able to get a better grip on it. It was far too cold for us to be traveling and each and everyone of the members of our huddled company knew this. We were going to freeze to death if we did not find shelter soon.

I tried to talk them down a path that had a lot of trees, a path that would not lead us anywhere near water, but they refused to go into it, saying that there would be less of a chance of finding someplace for us to all sleep there than where we were heading. I cursed each and everyone of them in my head as we moved on. When he was finally my turn to get off guard duty, Fili and Kili were placed back on and I could see the panicked look come onto Fili's face. I rolled my eyes as he looked over to me and moved quickly into the middle of the group and found my only true friend. Bilbo looked like he was going to freeze to death if he stood in the snow for one more minute so without even thinking about it I took off my cloak, wrapped it around the Hobbit's small body and then wrapped him and my cloak onto my back, mostly building a shelter around him.

" I will keep you like this until you turn back to a normal shade once again." I said with a smile as I could hear Bilbo cursing me from within the shelter.

" And what about you then? You are bluer than most of us here and what are you going to do?" He hissed into my ear.  
" Walk on." I smiled lightly as the others all looked back at Bilbo in envy.

" Hitching a ride there, Bilbo?" Bofur said as he nudged the two of us.

" Smart little Hobbit, knows how to get some heat into him!" Bombur said with a smile.

" We are surrounded by idiots." I whispered and could hear Bilbo snickering and agreeing.

Minutes started to feel like hours, hours like days, it was an endless journey into a white wall of snow. We were walking a thousand miles with every foot and making it no where with every inch! With every inch that was inside of me, every fiber that I had, I wanted to just roll into the snow and call it quits, I was shaking from the sweat rolling down my back which was freezing me even quicker! Soon Bilbo's weight started to make it hard for me to keep my sweating down and after about an hour of keeping my friend onto my back I had to place him back into the snow and with a worried look on my face we marched on. None of us were in a good state to be walking through the freezing night, none of us would be able to make it out in the open like this either.

" What's that up ahead?!" Ori shouted with a joyous smile as we all looked up to see what he was seeing.

" A cave!" Nori shouted as we all looked at one another with such joy in our eyes, all besides myself and Thorin, believe it or not.

" Oh yes, because a cave is just the place that we want to sleep in again." I muttered to myself as I shrugged though. " A cave is a cave, better then being in the snow."

" Aye." Thorin muttered and for the first time in pretty much forever we had come to an agreement on something. We did not speak, did not even look at one another and we kept walking closer and closer to the cave that seemed like a thousand miles away.

Then it happened, I started to say the things from my vision and I did not know how to stop it from happening. The cracking of the ice, the sounds that is made with all of us standing on it, there was no way that I could stop that. With a look of pure fear coming to my face I shoved Bilbo as hard as I could into the snow and started to run for Thorin. Just like in my vision, I knew that it was going to happen though, I knew that if I did not run for him that our leader would be into that water and not me. He was needed in this group so much more than I was. He was loved, had a family here, he had people that needing him alive and safe.

So I allowed myself to plunge into the ice water. I could hear the screams of the company as I went under, I could feel myself screaming and trying to get back up. Yes, I allowed myself to be sacrificed for the sake of Thorin, but no I was not going to stop and allow myself to die like this. I kicked and I thrashed as I tried to propel my body up and onto the land as hard as I could. I tried to grab for the hands that were splashing into the water all around to try and get me out. The numbness that was coming to my body already from the water, for the longest time it had mostly been on the inside, now it was shinning outward. Water was filling my lungs, I had been screaming too much, the chill of the water was around and inside my body now. I could hear the muffled screams of the Dwarfs trying to get me out instead of trying to get away from the ice that was breaking around them. Fools.

That's when I finally looked down and screamed at the top of my lungs when I saw what had me and was dragging me down! I kicked and kicked at her hands and tried as hard as I could to rip her hands off of my leg, but she kept a good hold of it as she swam us deeper into the waters below. An ice mermaid. I should have known that where there was a terrible storm like this there would be something behind it. Ice mermaids love to cause love travelers onto their frozen waters and then drag them below. It's their own little song that does not need to be sung. No matter how hard to tried to kick and scratch at the creature she would just shoot me a look and keep swimming down deeper and deeper into the murks below.

" Stop fighting me. You will become one of us here and you will be able to seek revenge on those who have hurt you!" She sung as she looked me dead in the eyes her hand still lightly around my leg. " Those Dwarf's up there, you will be able to bring each and every one of them to the justice that they deserve for what they have done to you. For treating you like you are nothing, for using you the way that they have, save your friends, kill your enemies." She sung as she looked into my eyes. I could feel myself smiling and the ice chill of the water hitting my teeth.

" _Will you love me?" _I asked into her head.

" Every second of every day that passes down here we will love you more and more." She smiled as the blonde of her hair shown through the small beam of light coming from the hole.

" _Will you protect me?" _I asked her as my head tilted.

" From no matter what may come we will be there to protect you through it all as you will for us." The greens and light blues of her scales shimmered like glitter from the sunlight.

" _Will I be treated as an equal, not a stupid halfbreed?" _I asked as I could feel the tears coming to my eyes that could not be seen from above, the screams of the others still coming from above.

" You already are our equal." She whispered as she moved in quicker to me

" And you are dead!" I screamed into the water as I swung out my sword and swung it right through her neck and out the other side. Her hand instantly falling from my leg as I made a dash for the land. The screams of other ice mermaids could be heard coming from every direction.

Lack of air was starting to hit me as I could feel my fingers touching other fingers and could feel my body being swept onto the ice that was around me. All I could do was cough and shiver as my body was instantly going into shock from the temperature that was around us. I looked up in shock as I saw that Thorin was wrapping all of his cloaks, furs, everything that he could give up, around my body and taking me into his arms. There was a horrible look of worry in his eyes as he knelt down beside of me and the others all moved in close.

" We. . . need. . . to. . . go. . . now." I shook as he smiled down at me, it was a look of pure joy almost.

" No, we need to get you warm before we do anything. We need to make a fire." Thorin replied with as he looked around, I could hear that the ice was starting to crack and I instantly shot to sitting up.

" No you fools! There. . . there are ice mermaids. . .below us. . . right now. They are trying to kill . . to kill all of us! We need to get off the ice. . . _now_!" I screamed as they all look from face to face as I sighed and showed them my leg, the hand print that was already visible on my leg.

" Run!" Thorin screamed as he lifted my body from the snow and started to race and backtrack from the land that we were on as I looked back I could see that the ice was cracking all around us.  
" Fili!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I ripping myself from Thorin's arms, jumping off from behind him and ran to the ground where Fili's body had been seconds before and could see him being drug deeper and deeper into the ground below. " No no no no no!" I screamed as I wrapped my hands around my hair. No, this could not be happening!

" Fili!" Kili screamed as he met me at the little hole where his body had gone to.

" Hold these." I sighed as I gave him my arrow holder, my bow, and all of the furs that Thorin had giving to me to warm me up.

" What are you doing, Lassie?" Dwalin screamed as I looked at Kili.

" Protect Bilbo." I whispered as I took the sword my sword where it had been in the snow and jumped back into the ice of the water below, diving straight for Fili's panicking body. My body instantly going back into shock.

Before I could make it straight for the beautiful ice mermaid with a crown that had Fili, I was grabbed by what felt like a thousand hands that started to pull and stretch my body to every end of the lake that they wanted to. I cried out in pain and tried to keep everything in as I could feel the air slipping from my lungs. Cutting through the rows of arms and any of the heads that I could find, I kept swimming as fast as I could, pushing through the water and kicking anything that came into my path as I wrapped my legs around the mermaid and placed my sword to her back.

" _You take your fellow ice-bitches and you swim far, far away from here. You leave me and **my** company the hell alone. Go and sing your song to someone else or I swear to you, I will slice everyone of your followers in half." _I hissed into her head.

" All of this for someone that had broken your heart and done more than that to you? Why?" She asked as she held Fili so that we were face to face. His eyes were starting to slip shut, his body was motionless in the water.

" _Isn't it obvious? There is no way to stop a girl, even a she-elf, when she is in love with someone. Now, give him over before I slice through your back and put you into two half's." _I hissed as I could hear the sounds of a tail whooshing closer and then it stopped. As I turned around I saw that the mermaid had a arrow in her skull, as I looked up I could see Kili with my bow and his arrows. _" Now." _

" Take your Dwarf and leave our waters. We will not stop you and you will have a safe passing." She hissed as she threw Fili into my arms and I started to swim as fast as I could to the surface. Once again I could feel the lack of air from the first time and this time hitting me much harder than before. Fili was the first to my hoisted to the surface and I was only seconds after. My body was limp and I could feel that I was really dizzy.

" Is he. . ." I whispered as I looked over to see Fili instantly coughing up the water that had gotten into his lungs.

" You have saved not only my life, but you went back and saved my nephew's life. I will be forever in your debt." Thorin said at my side as he looked over to see that Fili was already sitting up once again.

" As will I." Kili said as he rested my bow down on my chest.

" And as will I." Fili said lightly as he moved the hair out of my face, it was already freezing there.

" We need to get her out of here and into someplace that is warm, fast. She is fading quickly." Dori said from the other side of me, I turned to see that his finger was on my neck, feeling my pulse, I had never even felt him touch me.

" They. . . gave us. . . safe. . . passage." I hissed as the pain of moving hurt as I pointed to the cave.

" To the cave!" Thorin screamed as he instantly lifted me and started to _run _as fast as he could to the cave. Not stopping for a soul and all I could do was smile when beside of me I could see Kili who was giving Bilbo a piggyback ride to the cave, his arm tightly around his brother as well.

The fire was roaring and it felt so good to be out of all of those wet clothes that I did not care that I was in nothing but the shirt off of Thorin's strong back. My toes were almost in the burning coals that were around the fire, but I did not care, they were starting to turn back into a nice shade of pink. From the other side of the fire I could see Fili starring at me dead on, but I could not allow myself to look back. I kept my eyes on my toes and other parts of my body that were beginning to take to the color that they were supposed to be once again. I smiled as Kili knelt down beside of me and gave me some of the tea that we had left, it was amazing going down and as he sat beside of me I could feel the heat that was coming from his warm frame.

" Come." He whispered as he wrapped his arm around my body and almost instantly I moved into his side, wrapping my whole frame around his. " What you did out there was truly brave, you have saved the lives of all of us."

" She was trying to sing her siren's song to me." I whispered as I could still feel my lips trembling.

" She- the song? How on earth did you not fold to the song of a siren? No man in history has been able to undue the song of the siren!" Kili said as he looked down at me with such awe and shock.

" Are you sure that she was singing her song to you?" Nori asked.

" She spoke to you?" Fili asked.

" Where they beautiful?" Gloin asked.

" Of course they were beautiful, they were ice mermaids!" Thorin hissed.

" She wanted me to join them. She-" I laughed out a little as I remembered. " she wanted me to help her kill anyone who passed through her lake. They all wanted me to help them. . . well help them kill you all. I would never be able to do that." I shrugged as I shook my head. " Besides, I am not a man." I smiled lightly as I looked down at my fingers.

" You are truly amazing." Kili whispered as he leaned his head on top of mine. It felt almost right being there.

Through most of the night we stayed up telling the stories that we had all heard about mermaids of all kinds. The queens that ruled them all and how all man that had come into their path before us had been lured into the water and only their remains were found years later. Through the fire I could only see those eyes coming from Fili's as I nuzzled my body into his brother's chest through the stories. Songs were sung, music was played. Bofur even tried to teach me how to play his flute, but I had always been more for things with strings than a wind instrument kind of girl anyways. So when Kili and Fili started to play their fiddles I instantly shot up with shock and happiness, wanting to play one again so badly. But I could not because my hands were trembling too badly.

" I did not know that you played." I smiled as Kili stopped for a moment.

" Baby, there are plenty of things that you do not know about me." He said with a smug look as he went back to playing and all I could do was smile and shake my head. They were both truly amazing at it.


	15. Chapter 15

I woke there, in his arms. I did not know what to think when I could find that my body was wrapped around his. Sometime in the night I must have though that he was. . . I must have subconsciously thought that he was someone else. It was either that or I had had another one of my cold bursts through the night from my body trying to regain all of the heat that I had lost. I had fallen asleep sometime through the night, between the singing and the folk lure of the people. I had been wrapped in Kili's arms for most of the night when he was not playing his fiddle, he had his arms wrapped so tightly around me that I could feel my cold being exchanged for his heat. Many times had I tried to break from his grip to allow him to regain all of his heat, but he would just pull me back into him. But now there was something very different about the two of us and the way that we had been sleeping.

One of my hand was wrapped under his shirt and holding onto it for dear life, the other was tangled under his head. One of my legs was on top of Kili's the other going straight down his body. From my waist up was laying on top of the Dwarf while the other was as close to him as possible. His body was not very different either. His hand wrapped his my hair, his face buried deep within it with a soft smile on his face. His whole arm wrapped around my waist and holding me in close to him. We looked like two scared teens who needed to love and care of one another. With a soft smile coming to my face and the heat of blood rushing to it as well, I tried to escape from the hold that was Kili and it was the first time that I had noticed how strong he really was. I could not break the bond that was keeping us together and noticed the chill between us that had brought us together. The fire had gone out, most of the others were bundling together for warmth.

I thought that if I could not break the bond that was between Fili and myself that I should just enjoy the heat that I was being able to steal from the Dwarf while I had it. Smiling and nuzzling myself back into his chest. From a moment I did not care that hell, I was most likely still not up to body heat, that I should be laying around brokenhearted because of some Dwarf that did not care about me, the fact that I nearly died for him less than twelve hours ago, or that I was entangled in his brothers arms. None of it mattered besides the heat that I was able to get off of Kili's body and the way that he seemed to happy with me being here. In his sleep he pulled me in closer to him, nuzzling and getting his head deeper into the nest that was my hair. With a smile I pulled on his clothing and wrapped it around my waist and the goosebumps that were forming on my bare legs.

I must have fallen asleep because when I awake I could hear the small laughs that were coming from Kili as he tried to untangle his hand from my hair. I smiled and tried not to laugh hard when I found the nest of hair that had formed in front of my face that consisted of a fire of matter and tangled hair around Kili's hair and fist. With a smile I started to try and help to unwrap him from it. Kili had such a cute look of patheticness on his face as we both tried to undo it that all I could do was laugh and smile as he finally broke free from my hair. The rest of our bodies did not move though, we just stood and starred at one another. He had such a cute smile that it could only enhance mine even more. I triedd to unweave the mess that was my hair with my fingers as I looked down to find that my legs had been covered with Kili's coat.

" You seems cold only wearing that shirt. You were shivering a little and well. . . I didn't think that I would need it. . . you seems to. . ." Kili's hand was moving through his hair and he had an awkward smile on his face that made me blush and smile.

" Thank you, Kili. That was very kind of you." I smiled as I moved my fingers from my hair and laced them around Kili's hand. " It really means a lot to me."

For a moment I could feel the fire that had died down. I could feel the roar of the flames and smiled as I looked down at our fingers that were twined into one anothers and felt the fingers as Kili lifted my chin and smiled at me. There were no word, nothing said to one another, it was like we almost _knew_, something had begun right then and there that was unexpected. The fire swooping out and taking us both, wrapping around us, and bringing us to one another. There was no movement, no thoughts, I did not think that either of us breathed even. Starring into one anothers eyes told us the story of one another.

I could see the baby that had never known his father, how had died in a war just days before he was born. The child who grew up with his uncle as a father like figure. Learning how to shoot an arrow. Being trapped in the shadow of his brother's glory each and everyday. Fili and Kili sleeping with one another each and every night from the moment that Kili had been big enough to sleep in a bed. Staying up and play battling one another until their mother would come in screaming to them. The sadness of being different, of not being like anyone that he knew. The sorrow of not having many friends besides the ones that his brother also had. Being rejected by women because he was not like a normal Dwarf, he did not have a bread, a big noise or ears, he looked normal. Some even called him an Elf-boy because he looked more like that. The anger towards his kind for this rejection. Each and everyday hoping that he would make up to see more of a beard coming in. The hope of going back to the homeland that he had never seen before. Being thrilled to be able to go onto this journey and knowing that he would be side-by-side with his uncle and his own brother.

Then the last flash of a memory, seeing me. From the instant that he saw me, the second his eyes had met mine, he had been in love. He looked at me as if there was a golden light around me that made me shine through darkness. From the first look into my eyes he knew that he was in love. Kili would have done anything, been anything, to be able to get to know my name, to be able to get a lock of my flames that he thought of as hair. He saw a beauty within me that no one had before. Kili had been the one that refused to leave me there when the others started to run out, he was the one that would not leave me there and Fili tried to drag him out, yelling at him to run with him. But he took up his bow and moved right into the area where I had been and of course, Fili follow him.

" Well look here Lads." Dwalin whispered and this shook us out of the memory, Kili's hand dropping from my face, both of us looking into different directions as I looked straight into the group, Kili towards the wall.

" Kili's rebounding her." Nori whispered to Ori, I hated my amazing hearing sometimes.

" You think it's a little too soon?" Ori whispered.

" They are all starring at us." I whispered to Kili in more of a sigh as I moved all of the hair out of my face. I could feel the warmth of my face heating in embarrassment.

" Let them. They can get over it or stop looking." Fili said with a smile as he looked back at me. " Your hair is a mess, come here." He said as he dragged me to him so that my back was directly with his chest.

I closed my eyes and loved the felling of his fingers running through my hair, the way that he seemed to be such a professional with wrapping strands of hair into one another. He would go from one side of my head all the way to the other and then right in the middle and go back and forth until all of the hair of the top layer of hair from each side of my head was wrapped into a braid that fell right into the middle where he had made a much bigger one. I smiled as I held it into my hands and looked back at the proud face that was on Kili's face and the biggest smile that was on his face as well. With a smile I looked back at him and saw into his eyes what he had saw in mine that same night. I would go to the ends of the earth with this Dwarf.

" It's beautiful." I whispered with a smile as I placed my hand onto his face as I could feel the heat of a different fire on my toes and noticed that the others had started to make a place for breakfast.

" That's only because of the beautiful girl that is wearing it." He whispered to me as he leaned his face deeper into my hand.

" Why do you think so highly in me?" I asked as I looked around to notice that no one was even near us that was awake to hear us speaking.

" Because you have not giving me a reason to think otherwise." Kili said with a small smile as he looked into my eyes. " Because something as beautiful and kindhearted as you should be thought of a highly as possible."

" But I am an Elf." I sighed as I looked at the others. " Your kind and my kind hate one another. . . I guess." I shrugged as I bit onto my lip. " You are supposed to pretty much hate me and I to you."

" That is not set in stone, besides, I am just a Dwarf. I have no right to be touching you in the way that I am. I am not even thought of as that by my people, the woman look down at me and laugh because I do not have the right anything. They- they think of me more as-"

" As someone like me. While my people would always look at me like some form of a freak because I was not tall enough, I was not elegant enough, I did not follow by the rules. I had this flaming red hair that was so unheard of by my people, big ears. I think that we _must _have been switched at birth." I said as we both gave a small laugh.

" You should be held at a pedestal among the most beautiful and brightest of Elfs, of all kind. I have never seen someone like you before, you just smile and everything around you just _lightens_. When your heart is hurting and you are feeling down, the world seems so dark and all I want to do is comfort you and try to make everything better. You are the girl that makes me want to search the earth until I know everything in it. You make me feel like nothing I have felt before. Like I mean something." He said as he started to blush, the only thing that I could do was smile at the Dwarf. " I know that it sounds silly-"  
" No, it is the most amazing thing that I have ever heard someone say about me. I know how you have felt, I have seen them and felt the same way. I am glad that I make you feel like something because you are something. You are something so amazing and special because of the things that you have felt and the way that you have never allowed them to get you down before! Kili, you are something so special." I whispered as I could hear the snoring starting to stop with the smell of fresh food being made.

My hand dropped to the ground as I could see Thorin stirring from his place on the group, but Kili picked it up and placed it into his warm ones, rubbing and trying to heat them as he smiled at me. The smell of the cooking food, what little we really had left, rose everyone from their slumbers that had not still been asleep and, as Kili and I both leaned against the cave walls and huddled into one another, we could see the others giving glances towards one another and then start to instantly whisper. We only smiled as Kili worked on my hair a little and I tired to shimmy into the clothing that had been lain out to dry while we slept. They were warm because they had been over the fire and felt amazing to get back into. Each time that I would move Kili would sigh and have to redo anything that he was working on. All I could do was laugh and smile and go back to messing him up more.

This morning was very different from most of the others. When I looked around I could see it even on the faces of one another. There was a change in the group that was so amazing that I had to stop what I was doing and just look around. We all really seemed to be together as a group. There was not a person that had been left out from the morning discussions. No one seemed to be doing all of the work, instead we were all doing something to help another person. If someone was cooking breakfast another person would be helping keeping the fire going. If one person was getting water from the ice from outside, another person was making sure that they did not fall in _or worse. _Everyone seemed to be making sure that both Fili and myself had enough heat on us because honestly we still looked like hell. Thorin even came over, still bare chested and asking how I was feeling this morning, making me smile so wide and honestly made me feel like he gave a damn for a moment. I could only hope and pray that this would be able to stay, that we would be able to keep this going long after out journey had ended.

But something was happening with my stomach with the smell of the meat cooking in a pan. What should have smelled amazing to me because of how long it had been since we had last easten anything did not do that. It instantly turned my stomach so badly that I had to run from the cave and get as far away from it as possible. I made it only a few yards away before what little I had in my stomach came back up on the ice. I could feel the inside of my just turning and my head spinning as I moved from the ice and slithered down the edge of the outside of the cave. I could not see very straight and just the smell of the food coming from the came made my head worse and my stomach turn itself inside out over and over again. I tried to take in the cold air but nothing seemed to be working. I started to walk around in dizzying lines further and further from the cave and I could hear the sounds of footsteps following in the background. With every few steps I had to stop and take in a deep breath and tried to keep everything else that I had done.

" Oh god, what is happening to me?" I whispered at the sky as I looked into it and saw that we had a clear days travel ahead of us.

I did not dare go back to the cave, I could not think about having the rest of my food come up from where it was. So from a good distance away I finally called walking quits and sunk into the ground and next to the cave and gave in. It could not have been anything that I ate because I would have known this by now. No berry or the water that I had taken in would do this such thing to me. No matter what I could think of there was nothing ti support my ideas. I sighed as I closed my eyes and started to feel the waves of pain and agony starting to wash from my face and I could feel all of the tenses starting to wash away with the soothing voice that I hated so much came from somewhere else. I sighed as I tired to turn him out but I knew that it would never last.

" Please, just leave me alone." I whispered as it was as loud as I dared to go without feeling my stomach come up.

" You saved my life yesterday and I need to make sure that you are alright. Are you feeling okay?" Fili asked as he knelt down beside of me and placed his hand onto my forehead.  
" I feel like crap, my body is still thawing, and I am now sitting in snow because I cannot be inside because it turns my stomach instead out. And oh most of what I had left in my stomach is on the ground a few yards from the cave. So you tell me, how the hell am I feeling?" I asked as I held onto my stomach

" Sassy." Fili said with a smile as he sat down beside of me in the snow.

" Will you go back in there and come back out when you know that the smell has left the cave and they are all done eating. You reek of it." I whispered as he gave me a look that hurt me to the soul, but without saying another word he got up and walked back into the cave.

I sighed and tried to focus on the stars that were slowly slipping from the sky. Naming each and everyone of them by memory with a smile as I said them out loud. I tried to do everything that I could to calm my stomach, to try and make it stop. Deep breaths and stars. Deep breaths and stars. All of it seemed to be doing pretty well and with a soft smile I rose from the ground and found the hole that the Dwarf's had been taking their water out of and splashed a few quick bursts of water into my face and hair and finally looked down at my ragged body.

My ribs and hips were poking out more than they had been before, though we had been able to eat like champions here and there those between parts we eat only what we could catch. My face was was dirty and cut up, a new scar starting to form from where I had been cut open. As I made my way down my body I could feel my heart stop as I looked down and noticed how my hand was placed on my stomach, the way that it was held to comfort myself and could see it in the reflection of the water. Visions that were starting to come forth during the time when I was awake.

" No." I whispered as I could hear the laughing of a small child coming from behind me. " Oh god no."


	16. Chapter 16

The child had light blonde hair and sent waves of sadness through my body as he ran from one place to another, hiding behind the little bushes that were around and looking me right in the eyes. He had my eyes, ears, and skin tone, his dad's noise and smile. But there were also flashes of both of our brothers inside of this child as well. He had the elegance and love that Elrond had in everything that he did and a way that with anything he did he would shine through the night. He reminded me of Kili in the way that he would smile before anything had happened and would wave and seem like nothing in the world was wrong with him. The child seemed to be more Elf than a Dwarf, but there was definitely Dwarf inside of him. He seemed to be about the age of four and he was calling for someone, not me though, someone else. Someone that was behind me, as I turned I could see nothing, and when I turned back he was gone.

" _Iris._" I whispered with a smile as I turned back to see that Fili was coming back from the cave and dropped my hand from my stomach as he looked at me. I was doomed but I would not allow it to stop me. " I need food, I need food now." I whispered as I turned back to make sure that there had been no one behind me.

I knew that it would be dangerous for the two of us to move on like this. But I was not going to leave my company alone. I mean honestly, they would not make it five miles before each and every one of them would be eaten by someone or thrown into jail for doing stupid for something. They would never forgive me either. I knew that it was stupid and harmful, but I could not leave now and I knew that I would just have to be more careful about what I was doing. I guess to put it into plain terms I would have to not jump into freezing waters for anyone until I would be able to get an Elven together to look me over. I knew that it would not happen anytime soon because the next Elven town was Mirkwood and there was no way that we would be stopping in there and seeing the Elvenking. Besides, going back into the woods that I had no clue about and knew that there would be orcs waiting for me to bring my back to my slave master who would most likely kill me on the spot, no that would be _much_ more dangerous. I whispered to myself and whatever may be inside that we would be taken care of.

" Honestly, you need to be careful with that stomach of yours and you really need to lay off the being the hero for awhile. Sit back and allow us to take care of you." Bilbo said as I sat beside of him in the warm cave.

" You really do not know how much you will come to regret that statement." I said with a smile as I grabbed as much of a plate of food as there had been left for me. " I guess that my stomach was not ready for new smells." I lied through my teeth as Thorin gave me a knowing look and I knew right then that I was doomed from this.

" Smelling the food made you sick?" He asked and I took a gulp of food.

" Yes. I guess that something about it and most likely the great consumption of water that I had taken in yesterday just turned my stomach until I could not keep it in any longer." I shrugged as Thorin nodded.

" Well we will have to check in on that and you are going to have to be on the least straining things that you can be on. Until you are fully better and healed, that goes for you too Fili." Thorin hissed as he waved his fork between the two of us.

" Completely understood!" I said with a smile as I dug back into my meal.

" We should move from this spot soon." Balin said from the entrance of the cave, looking outside/

" No, not with Fili and Ireth still not fully better yet. Especially now that Ireth is having _stomach _problems." Thorin said as he sent me another look.

" No. Please do not allow my stomach issues to be the cause of stopping this journey. I am fine now. Besides, we really should get out of here before the summer heat starts to thaw out the water, who knows how much room we would have to get out of here before then." I said as I looked down at my food and refused to look at anyone else. " I think that a little frost bite should not stop our journey. What say you, Fili?" I asked as I looked over at him and could see the curious look on his face.

" With your stomach the way it is and you still saying we should go on, with the way that you most likely have hypothermia, and you still want to go on with this journey, if you are up for it then I am." He said as he paced his hand on my shoulder and I instantly shrugged him off. " Though I think that you are completely insane."

" But I like it." Kili said as he sat between myself and his brother, making me smile lightly at him and his moved his arm around my shoulder and brought my in close to his side. " I will be at your side through the rest of this journey or until you feel better." He whispered as he gave me a soft kiss on the forehead.

Right after breakfast we all started to pack up whatever things we had gotten out for the night and started to wrap them all up. Kili never left my side and even made me sit and allow him to do all of the packing as he thought that I was not healthy enough to be able and do it. But I knew that it would be for the best and rolled my eyes and allow him to do what he pleased with my items. I mostly fumbled around with my arrows as I placed them all into my container, making a mental note of all of the ones that I had lost sine the time that I had gotten them and knew that I would need to either buy more or that I would need to make more. As I was doing this Bilbo came and sat down beside of me with a worried look on his face as he did so. With a smile I tried to convince him that I was alright.

" You are not well, it is obvious." Bilbo stated with a sigh as I smiled at him.

" I will be fine. Promise." I said as I looked over to find that Kili was putting on all of my pack onto his back. " Will you put that down! I will be fine enough to carry my own things!" I yelled as he shook his head like a child and ran out of the cave with his and my things on his back.

" I think that maybe being outside for too long yesterday and being in that water had gotten you ill, maybe even brought you down with the flu. We should really stay here for a little longer." Bilbo said as he placed his hand onto my forehead to feel my temperature. I already knew that it was as cool as a cucumber.

" Listen, I already have Kili who is worrying about me and that is really all I need right now. Please, do not worry about me, worry about what is going to happen in the future." I sighed as I looked down.

" Did you have another vision?" Bilbo asked as I stood from the cave and started to warm all of my clothing around me once again.

" Oh yes, a _very _scary one." I sighed as I helped Bilbo get his cloak back on.

" What was it about?" He asked as he looked up at me with widened eyes.

" Oh just about how I was going to grow up alone with like fifty cats and live in a place called the Shire in a hill! The worst past is that I would have this horrible neighbor named Bilbo. Horrible, horrible, vision Bilbo. I can only hope that it does not come true." I said with a laugh as I ruffled his hair and moved from the cave. I wish that I would have had a vision about what would come to happen in the next few weeks.

**Three Weeks Later**

Spiders, I hate spiders more than anything else. So of course we would have to be captured by what else but giant spiders. Scared was not the word that I would call it when they wrapped me up into their mess of a web and all I could see was little glints of light coming from here and there as all I could do was wiggle around. I thought that I was going to die of a heart attack when I felt that I was being moved all around to find that Bilbo was cutting me free. All I could do was hold onto him so tightly as he finally cut my free and he could feel my body trembling from all around. I really _hated _spiders.

" Bilbo, you are my hero." I whispered as I looked around to see that everyone else was at different stages of being wrapped up and all I could do was laugh when I started to piece together who was who.

Fili was only wrapped from the waist down and was trying to get out of the webbing all on his own. I was guessing that the shaking mess of webs was most likely Kili. Most of the others I was able to see atleast half of the faces of as I took out my sword and started to cut people free from their webbing and all I could do was laugh as I cut through the webbing of Kili's and smile down at him as I felt him from the shoulder's down in the webbing and gave him a kiss on the lips. I hated to say it, but I was falling in love with my child's father's brother. It was not something that had ever even been thought of in my culture before.

" You know what, I think that I really like you this way. Unable to move, it might be something that I can get used to." I said with a laugh as I started to walk away from him.

" Ireth! You get back here right now and you get the rest of this off of me!" Kili yelled to me and I could see the smile that was still on his face.

" I do not think that I will do that! Maybe I will just drag you to the Lonely Mountain! I would just leave you here, but you kind of have all of my stuff _still _on your back." I said with a laugh as I moved back to him and gave him one more kiss on the lips.

" You would not do that to me." He whispered as he kissed my cheek.

" Only because you are far to heavy for me to be carrying and I am far too weak to carry you right about now." I sighed as I started to cut through the rest of the webbing. " You know, I think that they would have eaten you last. They made this that it would be hard for _anyone _to get out of this mess." I smiled as he finally got his arms free and placed me onto of his body that still had webbing wrapped around him.

" Do you want me to break free the other parts?" I asked with a smile as I dropped my sword down to the ground beside of us.

" No, but man you are starting to look so sexy with now. Maybe we could sneak off behind some of those bushes?" He asked as he ran his hands up my back.

" Like the way that we did last week when you were supposed to be on guard?" I whispered with a wink as I cut the rest of the webs off of his body.

" Just like that." Kili said with a smile as he wrapped his arms around my body and started to kiss me once again.

" Oh to be young and in love once again." Balin said and I could almost hear the smile on his face.

" Maybe. . . we should. . . help the others." I said between kisses.

" No." Kili replied and kept kissing me, bringing my body in close to his. " Maybe tonight we can do it again?" He questioned with a teasing smile.

" After the hell of today I think that all I will want to do tonight is sleep." I lied with a smile as he turned me so that I was laying on the ground.

" Well maybe we should just do it right here then." He whispered into my ear as he nibbled onto it.

" And maybe we should get the hell out of here before any _other _spiders come for us." Fili said as he tugged Kili off of my body.

I do not think that I would ever be more thankful for Fili doing something to ruin my fun than I was in that moment. I wanted to be with Kili in every way with very fiber of my body, but I had not told a soul yet about my little issue that I was in. I barely had a bump that I bet no one that did not have Elf eyes would be able to see, but I was not going to take that chance either. No matter how much I wanted to and no matter how much Kili tried and tried to get me to, there was no way that I was going to be taking my shirt off around him anytime soon. So as Kili curse his brother and helped me up, all I could do was shrug it off and started to help the others out of their webbing and started to get ready to move on.

" Quite." I said as I placed my hand up and could hear the light footsteps that could only be coming from the woods that were around.

They were surrounding us, from each side there were footsteps that were coming in and I knew that we were once again in a bad situation. These were Elf's that would not be as friendly as the riders that were under my brothers leadership. These Elf's would most likly know Thorin's face and know his family, these would be the Elf's that gave all Elf's a bad name. I cursed as I looked around to try and find at way for us to get out, a way for us to not have to fight, but I knew that would not be any use and instantly took out my bow and arrow and aimed it for the opening in the woods that was right in front of me. Instantly the rest of the company looked from me to Thorin and started to form a circle around and got out all of their weapons.

" What do you hear with your Elf ears?" Thorin questioned next to me as I kept my eyes in front of me.

" Elven footsteps, each direction. Many." I said as I could finally see the Elf's coming from the woods and noticed that they were also soldiers. " Fuck." I whispered as I looked at Thorin.

" How many?" Thorin questioned as he looked around.

" More than us, they will each have bows and arrows that will allow them to shoot for a long distance." I replied as I looked at him in more panic as the soldiers all took out their weapons. " Should I try and talk to them?" I asked.

" Be the diplomat that I can not be." Thorin said as I took back my bow and moved out of the circle towards the Elf's that kept marching.

" Ireth!" Kili said as Thorin had to keep him in the little group.  
" You do not need to have your weapons out." I said in Elfish with a smile as I held my hands up.

" Then why do your people have theirs up?" The leader asked as he bowed his head to me and I did the same to him.

" Your men scared us and they came out with weapons, what were we supposed to do? We mean no harm, if your men put down their weapons, mine will do the same." I said simply as he looked down the company and I looked down his soldiers. As he lowered his hand his men all lowered their weapons. I looked back a Thorin and nodded to him as he made the group all do the same. Though he really did not want to.

" What is your business here?" He asked.

" And why should I tell you this?" I asked as I tried to come up with something on the spot. He came me a look that told me that I should tell him. " We got lost, we are all starving and we saw a campfire and tried to follow it. We got captured by giant spiders of all things and now you are here and we are here." I shrugged with and started to smile as he did.

" Giant spiders huh? Have not seen very many of those in _years_." The solder said with a smile as he looked around his group. " And were are you planning on going with a group of Dwarfs and a halfling?"

" Places." I said with a smile.

" Like. . .?" He asked and I could tell that he really was trying to be nice about it but I would not be able to tell him.

" I cannot say." I said as he moved me out of the way and walked over to the group of Dwarfs.

" You!" He shouted to Thorin and moved straight to him. " I know your face. . . Thorin Oakensheild." He said with a thick smile as he turned to his group of soldiers. " Take all of their weapons, if any of them try and keep them, shoot them on the spot. We are bringing them back to the king." He hissed as he moved back to me and grabbed me by the hair.

" We have done nothing wrong!" I shouted as I was thrown back to the company and fell to the ground. My bow and arrows taken along as my sword.

We were taken in a group to the kingdom that was nearby and I could only think about the next plan for escape. I tried to keep calm but I could feel the panic that was starting in my stomach and moving it's way up. The only calming thing that I had was those few looks that Kili would give back to me and just nod once before turning back to facing forward. I kept my hair in front of my ears as we made out way into the kingdom to make people think that I was just a Dwarf and when we put into a cell I was put into the one that was next to the others because I was a female and they were males. I wanted to be with my company badly. They kept us in there for what seemed like days without coming down or saying a word to us. Just kept us locked away as if we were prisoners.

" How are you holding up in there?" Kili asked through the bars with a smile as he held his hand out for me and I instantly grabbed onto it.

" I'm not. Honestly." I said as I shook my head. " I hate to be alone, even it if is just through some steel bars."

" We'll find a way out of this." Kili said as he rubbed his thumb across the top of my hand and gave me a warm smile.

" Promise?" I asked as all he could do was laugh and smile.

" Of course I promise." He said with a laugh as I beam of light came from up the stairs and a guard came down them and pointed to me.

" You! She-elf, what is your name?" He demanded as I stood.

" Ireth." I replied as I looked him dead in the eyes. " Why have we been locked in here for hours like we are slaves?" I asked in Elfish as he moved back up the stairs and banged on the door.

" It's her!" He screamed and the door swung open and the guard instantly fell down the stairs as another elf came down the stairs and straight for my cell. I instantly moved to the outside of my cell so that we were face to face.

" I have not seen you since we were so young." He said as he took my hands into his and smiled down at me.

" You have gotten so tall." I laughed as I held his hands close to my body. " But your eyes still shine like when you were a child."

" Ireth, how I have missed you. We all thought that you were dead! I gave back your rings to your brother, oh Ireth." He said as he touched my face with his hand.

" Legolas!" I smiled as I hugged him through the bars and could feel the stares coming from the others.


	17. Chapter 17

" How long has it been?" Legolas asked me with a smile as if I was all that he could see.

" Years." I whispered as I reached out to touch his face but could not make the reach, so he moved in closer and all I could do was smile. " We were but children when we saw one another last. Our parents deciding our fates for one another."

" What are they saying to one anther?" Oin asked as he tried to move in closer. They all looked like schoolgirls trying to get in all of the gossip.

" I do not know but they know one another." Ori replied.

" How do they know one another?" Kili asked.

" Why do they know one another?" Fili asked and all Legolas and I could do was smile and look at one another.

" Well this should be a shocker to them." I laughed as I turned to them.

" You know these Dwarfs?" He asked with a questioning look as he looked up and down my body. " You _really _know these Dwarfs _well_." He said as he stopped on my stomach and then looked back up at me.

" Quite now." I said with a smile as I turned to my company and started to walk to them with Legolas following from the other side of the bars. " Everyone, this is Legolas we have been friends since we were very young. What was it? Since I was eight and you were ten?" I asked looking over to him and could instantly feel a smile come to my face.

" I was Nine, you were six, it was just before your birthday." He answered with a smile as he looked towards the group. " Which one?" He whispered as all I could do was look at Fili.

" Anyways, our parents noticed how well we got along and wanted to join our kingdoms together, make them into one. So they betrothed us. It has been so long since I have even though of you, Legolas, that I completely forgot all about it! I mean it's not like we can be anymore, since you gave back the rings." I said as I looked back at him and noticed he was starring daggers at Fili.

" You are right with that. Father has not since tried to do anything like that to me since then. I guess that he has learned his ways since then." He smiled as he looked back to me and all I could see was the little kid that I had known so well.

" Legolas you need to get us out of here! Please! They are treating us like we are slaves or prisoners. They have not told us why we are in here and they have not even spoken a word to us. All we were doing was traveling and then they dragged us in here! Please!" I begged as I moved so that we were facing once again.

" No, I need to get your medical attention. Do _they _know yet?" Legolas asked as he looked back to the group.

" Of course not. They would try and keep me from the group from the journey that we are on. Do you know how fast they would crash and burn without me?" I said with a smile as he nodded. The smallest laughter coming from his lips.

" _Faint_." He whispered as he moved in as close as he could to my body. " Faint and I will get you the medical attention that you need and then we can set you all free. I do not want to know where you are going or what you are doing. When you get there and do what you need to do please come back and find me." He said as he moved away and waited. I looked from him to the group and nodded.

" _We have a plan. Calm the others once I am gone. I swear to you, I will be back and I will get you all out of here._" I put into Thorin's head as he nodded to me as well in agreement.

Then with one fell swoop I dropped myself to the ground and closed my eyes tightly. The company instantly roaring and I could hear them surrounding the bars that kept us apart. The sound of Legolas screaming for another guard as they started to come down the stairs. The whole company screaming and yelling my name, trying to get any response that they could from me. Once they had me up the stairs so that none of the Elf's could see me, I opened my eyes and gave the company a wink and a smile that allowed them to know that I was alright. The only other Elf that could see what I was doing was Legolas who shook his head to me and I closed my eyes once again and let my body hang as if I was dead.

They took me to a hospital wing of some sort where I stayed motionless for a long time until I could feel the soft hands of Legolas shaking me to allow me to know that I was alright. With a smile I opened my eyes to find that I was in such a beautiful place. Golden drapes that hung from the windows and everything around was either purple, silver, or gold. I almost instantly knew that I was in the royal hospital wing and not the commoners wing. I gave a sharp look at Legolas and all he did was laugh and shrug at me.

" I would not allow you to be brought to a place where normal healers or doctors would be taking care of you. How long?" He asked as he moved his hand in close to my stomach and I nodded and he placed it onto my stomach with a smile.

" Almost two months now." I smiled as I looked down at my stomach. " I had a vision about him you know, he almost looks like you when you were a child but with a little less of a wild spirit, if you can believe that with a child of mine." I laughed as he shook his head.

" And you are married to this Dwarf?" Legolas asked as he looked up to me.

How could I have forgotten all of the traditions that had been passed down since we came to Middle-Earth? Mostly because I did not care what the others thought about me, but I should have known that this would have been a problem. Elfs _never _think about sex with someone unless they are in love with the person and they are married as well. What I did with Fili- and Kili- is something that is almost so unheard of that no one would believe it if it were not for the infant that was growing within me now. Having sex when you are unmarried is such a taboo in my culture, something that no one would even think about doing, let alone doing it that I honestly do not even know if there are punishments for it. But I really did not care about any of that, I thought that I was in love and honestly, I thought that I would marry Fili at the time. I guess that is something that happens when you are in love with another, you start to forget all about common sense and start to go with what your heart wants instead of what your head is telling you.

" No. I am not." I sighed as I looked out the beautiful window to see the city that was below. People all looked like they were all so happy living their lives in the confides of the city.

" Well you are still with him, correct?" He asked as he took my hands.

" No, I'm kind of with his brother right now. It all depends on if we live through this journey right about now." I sighed as I felt the warmth of his hands in mine.

" Are you insane! You are with your child's uncle right now?!" Legolas asked as he moved my face so that I was looking at him. " What are you thinking Ireth? Going forth on this journey the way that you are and putting not only your life but your child's life at risk as well! You- you are going back to Erebor aren't you?" Legolas said in a hushed tone.

" Yes we are and there is no way that I will be left behind. Here I will be called a traitor, they will never forgive me to staying here under the watch of your father. I am going with my friends, the people that need me and the people that I will stick with until this journey is over with. Legolas I am in love alright? I cannot pick and choose who I love, though I wish with all of my heart that I could. Fili does not love me in the way that I love. . . loved him. He told me a few things and we broke it off the day after we had sex, the night after our child was created. Ever since they Kili has been so kind to me and. . . so loving that I guess that I am slowly falling for him as well.

" Yes, we are going to Erebor to get back what was there, the place that was taken from them when _your _father decided that he would not come to help them. We were both too young to fight and I know that you did not have anything to do with this, but you really do not think that I will stay here when people need me. That is not in my blood as I hope that it truly is not in yours. Legolas, my child needs to be where it has family and in a place that will keep it safe from the creatures that will want to kill us for reasons that you should not and need not know. They saved me from the hell that I was in and I owe it to them to do that same for them. Without them I would be dead by now." I said with a smile as I touched Legolas's face.

" Then they will have my bow as well." He said as he placed his other hand onto my lap.

" No, I do not think that they would want the son of the enemy with them. Thorin – Thorin would have a bloody fit and would most likely just start killing everyone around him if he knew who you were and that I was with you right now." I laughed a little as I looked up at him. " I think that Thorin's head would just about explode if he knew that you were truly trying to help us." We both laughed as we looked at one another.

" Your beauty has only grown since we were children." He said with a smile as he looked towards the ground. " And anyone would be lucky to have you as their wife, as their child's mother. That Dwarf does not know how lucky he was and how lucky is brother now is. If this does not work out between you and this Dwarf and you find yourself leaving Erebor, please make sure that you find your way back here before you leave for anyplace else. My father would truly love to see you. Ireth, you would not believe how much he wept over your mothers and what he thought to be your death." Legolas said with a familiar smile.

" I will come back to see you once again, after this is all over with, I promise that I will come back." I laughed as the healer finally came in.

Malnourished, body parts that were an off shade of pink because of untreated frost bite, and most definitely pregnant. These were all of the things that the healer charged me with when she was finally done looking over me. She must have thought that I had been through hell or something for the way that I looked and with all of the scars on my body from long before this journey had started. I had been malnourished for years before this had begun, my ribcage had been poking out for as far back as I can really remember, it was something that I had just gotten used to. She instantly called me to to get as much food into me as I possibly could. With each and every meal that was brought to me, most of the stuff that I could hid was hidden under my sheets or I would shove it to Legolas to hide where ever he could find a place.

" You really care about these Dwarfs don't you?" He questioned with a smile as he hid a whole loaf of bread in with arrows that were by his side.

" More than I can possibly say. They are my friends. . . no, they are my true family. They are like the ones that just happened to come upon me and I will not eat all of this while they starve in a cell. We were dying out there." I said as I looked outside, it was going to be dark soon. " We should be thinking about our. . . our escape route." I whispered as I looked around, there was not another soul in here.

" Not tonight, at dawn we will leave. I will go down there and tell them everything and give them your. . . your gifts. Be ready at dawn." Legolas said as he stood and placed his hand on my face.

" You are not coming back tonight, are you?" I asked as I looked around the room, it was huge and I was going to be in there all by myself for the whole night?

" I will come back through the night to make sure that you are well and that you are getting enough sleep for you and your child." Legolas said with a smile as he placed his hand onto my stomach. " I can see great things in this child's future." He said with a softer smile as he looked at me.  
" As I can in yours." I smiled as he turned to leave.

" Sleep." He whispered as he left.

Through most of the night I could not sleep though. I wanted to and wanted to know that I would be fully rested for the rest of our trip, but I was worried. Worried about how the company was doing in the dungeon area that was below. Worried about how they were holding up and if they had been able to get enough good. Worried about how I was going to tell Fili that I was with child . . . his child. Worried about how the hell Kili was going to take that news. Even more than that how the hell Thorin was going to like to hear _that _news. Most of all I was worried about what was in the future for us, with a dragon that was going before us and how on earth we were going to regain the land that had been lost so many years ago. Most of the night when Legolas was not at my side, I was standing and watching the sky from the windows. Singing songs that I knew from when I was little or learned while in the Inn.

" Do you hear the people sing. . . singing the song of angry men." I sighed as I saw the moon shinning high above. " When the beating of your head echos the beating of the drums." I smiled as I looked down at my stomach.

" When were you going to tell me, tell the reset of the company?" A voice said as I spun around to see Bilbo standing in the middle of the wing with his cloak around him.

" How did you get here? Is everyone alright?" I asked as I ran over to him and hugged him as tightly as I could.

" You did not answer my question." Bilbo hissed as he looked at me. " When were you going to tell everyone?"

" Honestly?" I sighed as I looked down at my fumbling hands. " I think that I would have told them when I was leaving Erebor with you. Either Kili would be with me or he would hate me like his brother that he would not try and stop me. Hell, it's either that or when I was dying of x-degree burns." I said with a faint laugh but could tell instantly that it was not a moment to be laughing.

" So you had not thought about telling us before then?" He almost looked hurt.

" No, it would cloud everyone's judgment and with what is coming ahead I really did not think that it would be best for me to be doing that. Besides, it is Fili's, Fili does not love me anymore. Kili does and I guess that I am just being greedy because I do not want to lose him because of this. For now, I just want to feel like someone loves me." I sighed as I moved to the window once again. " Now tell me how did you escape?"

" Oh well. . . well you see they did not know that I was small enough to get through the bars and well. . . they did not notice me searching all along for you." Bilbo said as he nervously played with his pockets.

" Any big plans of escape?" I asked with a smile as I looked at the river that was near the city.

" Not really but I was thinking that maybe we could ride out of here." Bilbo said with a smile as he tried to look out the window and I noticed that he was too short to be able to do it. With a laugh I moved a chair over so that we were both looking out the window.

" Ride out? There is no way in the world that the Dwarf's would be able to ride full grown horses out of here and there are surely not enough ponies in the whole city for us to ride out on!" I shook my head at the idea.

" No, you will use the river." Legolas said with a smile as he showed us the keys he had gotten to the cell. " But you will need your weapons with where you are going."

I should have known that it would turn out to be something like this. Legolas and myself rolling barrels down to the river and moving them in nice little rows. Each one containing a different Dwarf in them. Hoping that they were all holding onto their weapons tightly and that they had not impaled them yet. I would have never been able to guess that something that was my size could have weights so damn much. It looked like nothing to the people in the town though, just the prince helping a young most likely fish market girl get her barrels of fish down the the river to be sent to Laketown. Nothing that was really out of the ordinary for this village I guess. With a smile I looked over to Legolas when finally there was one barrel left and that would be the one that I would be using to get down the river in.

" You really have done something amazing for us, Legolas. I think that I can surely say for all of us that we are in your debt." I whispered as I gave him a small kiss on the forehead.

" It is starting to rain, you think that it will harm you on your journey?" He asked as he looked up to the black sky and I giggled a little.

" A little fall of rain? That can't hurt us now." I smiled as I looked around to the wiggling barrels. They were starting to get restless. " Okay guys! Hope this works." I sighed as I looked to Legolas who nodded.

" _Hope_?! You hope this works?!" Dori shouted.

" You have never done something like this before?" Bifur screamed as his barrel wiggled around.

" Shut up!" I said as I kicked the barrels. " Ready?" I asked and all Legolas could do was smile and nod as we through the first of the barrels into the water and watched them bob as they moved down the river and started to throw the others in as well.

" Guess you better move in now." Legolas said with a smile as I was the final one left.

" I guess so." I smiled as he helped me in and closed the lid.

" When you get around five minutes down the river you can take the top off." He whispered as I could feel my barrel moving. " Good luck and please make it safely back here." He said as I tried to contain a scream as he threw me into the water.


	18. Chapter 18

At first it was nice and slow and we were all able to just bob around the river with the tops off. It was fun in a way, I mean trying to make sure that we did not topple over was not so much fun, but the way that the water just took us, that part was fun. I tired to make my barrel move forward so that I would be closer to the group but instead just made it rock back and forth more. It made me laugh so hard the most of the rest of the company tried to turn around to see what I was looking at, making their barrels turn in circles. Soon enough we were all just laughing at one another the the barrels took their path down the river. Soon enough with a little well placed rocks I was right up near both Bilbo and the brothers. I smiled as I looked over to see Bilbo looking at me and I knew exactly what he was thinking but I just shook my head at him.

" Well this is about ten thousand times better than having to walk down to Laketown." I said with a smile as Kili splashed water at me.

" You are going to wish that you had never done that!" I shouted with a smile as I splashed him with as much water as I could get it my hand and threw it all at him. I kept doing it over and over again until he was soaked.

" Will you two please _stop it_." Fili hissed from the other side of Kili.

" Jealous Brother?" Kili said with a smirk as he splashed his brother as well.

Before Fili could say anything in reply though we went around this bend and I could feel my stomach clench when we turned to see what was ahead of us. Rapids. Jagged rocks that seemed to go on for miles ahead and there was no other path that we could take, no way that we would be able to make it to the shoreline before the barrels made it to the rapids. No we were, once again, doomed. I looked over to see that Kili's eyes were locked onto me as he tried to move closer to my barrel to keep me in close, but the rapids were moving us away from one another. I hunkered my body into the barrel as much as I could, mostly because I did not want to see what was ahead, and to keep the balance of the barrel. The only thing that I kept outside of the core of the barrel was my eyes and the top of my head.

" Kili!" Fili screamed to his brother as I turned to see that Kili was still trying to move towards me, his barrel shaking and it looked like it was going to topside.

" Stop it before you drown!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, my whole body popping out of the barrel.

We were being spun around, whipped around corners, and going so fast that it seemed like we were never going to stop. Water was splashing up and making it's way into the barrel. I had never been seasick before, but I thought in that moment that I was going to throw up what little I had in my stomach into the water that was around. The spinning, the water, it was all too much. We were soaked down through the clothes and I could feel my body instantly start to shake as I tired to turn to see Kili to find only to find that we were coming up to a little path that had a sharp corner in it. If any one of it hit it the wrong way we would fall out of the barrel we were in and would be sent right into the one behind us and crushed. I looked around frantically and tried to find a way out, as most were, but there was no way around it. So I did what most of them were doing in holding on as tightly as I could to my barrel and screaming different war cries.

We made it and as we finally made it to a place that was shallow and could see that there was land around, we all jumped from our barrels and swan as fast as we could to the shoreline. I was dizzy and when I made it to the ground all I could do was try and stand without falling. I mean my world was spinning around me. I looked around and all I could see was spinning, my world was out of line and as I tried to walk in a straight line towards the grass that was around, it seemed like with every few steps that I had taken that I would fall to my knees once again and the process would begin again. When the world would not stop spinning all I could do was one thing. I threw up. Everything. It seemed like it was right though because when I finally stopped my world stopped spinning as well. I turned my place on a tree and closed my eyes for a few moments. My head stopped spinning and I was happy. Until I could hear someone clearing their throat around me and when I looked up all I could do was stare.

" Walk with me." Thorin said as he reached his hand out and pulled me up.

We walked for what seemed like miles in silence, I could feel my heart pounding in my ears, my stomach was up in my throat, and my voice seemed to be somewhere in my toes. I could not make eye contact with the king and I fumbled around with my vest as we moved further and further away from the group who was jumping into the water and having such a good time. The only person to really notice that we were leaving was Bilbo, who looked rather concerned as we left. It was still lightly sprinkling as we walked through the grass, but I could hardly care about that as we turned a corner and could see that the only thing that was around us was trees and the small path that we had taken to get here.

" How long did you think that you could go without someone noticing?" Thorin hissed as he looked me up and down.

" I knew that you knew all along. Since the time that I knew you had known. Maybe even before I knew you had known. There was no way to hide it for very much longer, the child grows everyday." I sighed as I moved my hair out of my face and looked up at the gray sky. " I knew that I could not hide it for long, but I guess I was hoping that it would be a long as this journey would take. Before he would grow too much more and we could rest." I said as I wrapped my arms around my waist.

" I remember when my sister was pregnant with the boys, she was sick almost every morning and could eat everything that we had at night. Those odd craving that she would have. Have you had those yet?" He asked with a playful smile as he looked over at me and all I could do was shake my head.

" I guess that food alone is the only craving that I have had." I sighed as I refused to look him in the eyes.

" And everything seemed to make her hormonal. I mean, _everything. _One second she would be so happy the next she would be crying in my lap because of something that her husband – Kili and Fili's father – had said to her. Oddest thing when women are pregnant." He said with a smile as he looked at me. " And now you are having my nephew's child, an heir to the thrown. Yet you have not told a soul." He said and his eyes were still shinning with what seemed like pride. " Why?"  
" Because, as a certain person said about me, it would only be a distraction. Something that may cause Fili to do something that he would regret in the future. Something that could get him killed by being crazy and over protective. I can handle myself and anything else that comes along for that matter! You do not want me with Fili! Hell I do not even think that you wanted me here to begin with, you just could not get rid of me!" I scoffed at him as I turned away from him. " My people will look down on this child. He will never be accepted by either race. Your people seem to have a passion for hating Elf's and Elf's just look down on anything that was not created in marriage. Look at me! People hated me because I was the bastard child of an Elf and a Dwarf and now look what happens. I go off and do the same thing!

" His father cannot love me because of the way that this world is set now and he refuses to even make contact with me because of _you!_" I said as I spun around so that we were facing. " Fili hates me now because of you. You have told me that he has to marry a Dwarf because he will one day be king! Because he has to have someone that will look good to the people, someone like him. Someone that is not a whore from an Inn. So who is that then? Not someone who fought the the right for you to regain the thrown that cannot have the same person on it? Not someone who loves him and only wanted to see him happy? Not the person who is carrying his child inside of her? No. So of course I did not _tell _anyone. It would only be a distraction, only something that would cause pain in the group." I sighed as I could see how my words had pained him.

" You. . . you were there that day, weren't you?" He asked lightly as he looked down in memory.

" Yes. I was there. I heard each and every word that came from your mouth. I know your hate for me and I still fought along side of you. Still freed you. And I will still fight for you to get back your kingdom. If it weren't for me and Bilbo, the two people that you hate so much, you would still be locked in a cell and do not forget that when you force your own damn nephew to marry someone that you know he does not love. And do not ever think that you will do that to my son." I hissed as I looked him dead in the eyes. " If you think that you will choose who my son will marry when it is his time to come to the thrown, I will shoot you down where you stand. You will not break his heart the way that you have done to Fili and myself." I hissed as I stuck my finger out to him.

" Son?" A voice from behind said as I spun around to find that both Kili and Fili were standing in the pathway. Kili's heart looked broken and Fili look scared to death.

" Shit." I whispered as Kili stormed off in the other direction. I did not know what to do, go running after Kili or try to explain myself to Fili.

I was being pulled in two different directions and everything seemed to be happening all at once. My head started to spin again and I could feel my eyes starting to water as I pushed past Fili and started to run into my own direction and decided not to confront either of them. I did not care who followed me and who did not, all I wanted was to go off in my own path. I had too many emotions and too many thoughts running through my that it hurt me to even think about. I finally found my way back to where the group was sitting around and still playing in the water and took my place around one of the trees, sitting away from them all as I closed my eyes and allowed the tears to fall freely. Soon the whole company would know about my little secret and about what I had been hiding and what would not be hidden for very long.

" You really should talk to him." Bilbo said as he sunk beside of me and all I could do was roll my eyes.

" Which him?" I sighed as I looked around to find that Fili had not emerged from the path yet and Kili was off path the group and almost walking back up the way that we had come from before.

" Either. Both. You knew that this was going to happen sooner or later and that you would have to face them then. What would you have told them? How would you have told it if they did not find out then?" Bilbo asked as he looked at me with a soft smile coming to his face as he placed his arm on my hand.

" I mean I wanted to know what happened, how did he know where we went, I mean the only person who knew where we were was. . . _you_. No, you didn't!" I said as I stood from my place in the ground and starred down at him, I could feel the anger bubbling at my core.

" Ireth, they. . . they needed to know and if this was the only way of them finding out before you would have just run away, then so be it!" Bilbo said as he stood and I could feel my hands curling into tight fists as I could feel the tears filling up in my eyes.

" I loved him. . . you knew that I loved him. . . I would have told them and I should have been able to do it when I wanted to, not when you found it right to do it! You were my friend! You were one of the only ones that I thought I could trust with all of my secrets! You betrayed all of that trust! Bilbo I thought that you were one of the people that I would be able to follow to the end of times. You, you were supposed to _trust _me with this!" I screamed as I could feel the looks coming from the others. " You were my first friend that I had in. . . in pretty much forever!" I sad as I could feel the tears falling from my eyes.

" Ireth." Fili's said as he placed a soft hand onto my shoulder and turned me around.

" Don't! Don't you do it too! Think that you did the right thing for me by. . . by telling me that we were no good together. The only person that you were helping is yourself! The only damn person that acted like he cared about me and truly did is gone now because of the things that I said and who the hell knows how I will get him back." I cried out as I could feel the tears falling from my eyes.

" Why did you not tell me about. . . about our son?" Fili asked as he tried to place his hand onto my stomach and I swotted it away.

" Because he would have been a distraction to you like I was to you. Trust me, I would have told you. . . when this would have all been said and done you would have known that I was having your child. I just, I needed time to think." I sighed as I looked back to find that Kili was slowly coming back up to where we were. " But I think that with this I have lost both of the people that I could not live without and gained the one that I cannot live without." I said with a small smile as I looked down at my stomach.  
" You really think that I am just going to give you up like that, to my own brother?" Fili hissed as he saw the way that I smiled at Kili.

" Yes. I was _just _a whore to you. That's what you told me. You see I know what was going on in your mind, I was just a slut in the hell of an Inn that I was forced in that your brother fell so hard for, you only went to save me because he wanted me. It was only after that that you even found out about me, but your judgment was already made about me. Your brother sees me. . . saw me, in the light that no one else has in such a long time. He knows that there is such thing as love at first sight because he did it with me. He knew what it was like to wait and he did that because he loved me. I hope that he will be able to see me in the same light after this. No matter what happens, I will love you but now, I am in love with your brother. Nothing will change my mind." I shook my head with a smile as I could see that he was starring at me from afar.

" What about the baby?" Fili asked as he looked towards my stomach.

" He will live me with, where I go he will go, I will never leave him. We will have to be a family. I mean he is the heir to your families thrown, but he will not live in Erebor with you constantly." I said with a smile. " He will have his father in the line because that's what a child should have, but he will go with me because I love him and he will not be looked down on because of _what _he is! The same things that you said about me will be said about him!" I hissed as I left him there in his thoughts and went down with Kili with a small nervous smile.

" Can we talk?" I said with a smile as I took his hands into mine and started to walk back the way that he had come from.

" I guess that we are going to." He said with a faint laugh and I could feel my heart lightening up already.


	19. Chapter 19

Like always, Kili made things so easy to be around him, like his whole atmosphere would change around him with just the way that he smiled. He held my hand and we just walked for awhile, we would just look at one another and smile and have to turn away. We were so shy with one another as if we were children. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach and so happy when he would smile at me. It may have been just because we were nervous or hurt or anything like that, but with one look we would be able to just feel everything else that we had before. I felt like there was nothing wrong when he would hold my hand and smile at me, but then I could feel the tears that were still wet on my face and knew that it would not last. Kili just made me feel like there was nothing that would be able to hurt me in the world, there was nothing that he would allow to hurt me.

" So I guess that I should tell you. . .everything." I sighed as I turned him so that we were facing one another and instantly had to look down because of how hurt he looked in his eyes.

" No, I think that I fully understand everything." Kili said as he softly lifted my chin so that we were looking at one another a sad smile coming to his face.

" You really do?" I asked with a smile as I looked into his eyes and knew instantly that he did not.

" Yeah I mean Fili had. . . had told you that he did not want you or love you in the way that you needed and here I was. . . I mean I was there and so in love with you and I guess that maybe I was a rebound from Fili or maybe you were just playing with me all along. I would understand either way. But I mean I get it, you. . .you and him are going to have a beautiful child. You and the baby will be welcomed gladly in Erebor." Kili said as he placed his hand onto my face and I could see the tears coming back to my eyes and could feel my heart breaking once again.

" Oh Kili, you have it all wrong." I said with a smile as I placed my hand on top of his. " I loved you ever since you saved me. I did not know that I was in love with you until you started to show it to me. I fell so hard and fast for you that I did not know what was happening, I was so in love with you and your brother. Then I had a vision. . . and I knew that I was with child. I. . . I wanted to tell you. . . and Fili, but I knew that it would get you both distracted and well I was being so greedy. I wanted to be. . . be with you forever and I wanted to keep you with me for as long as I could. I wanted to stay with you and I knew that this child, my baby, would get in the way. I love you and I love him. . . but I will never be able to have both." I said as I chocked back the tears. " I love you with all of my heart."

" Call me greedy." Kili said with a smile as he started to whip away my tears . " But I will not leave you. If you still want me to be yours, then you will be mine. Baby or not, I will keep you safe through this ten thousand times more than I had been before, my nephew grows inside of you. I will take are of you and this child and will never treat you any differently." He said as he gave my forehead a soft kiss.

" Why? Why would you do all of this?" I asked as I wrapped my arms around his neck and brought him in close to me.

" Because I love you with all of my heart and I know what it feels like to be out-casted because of how different I am." He whispered into my ear as I cried into his shoulder.

We just stayed like that and could have been there for days, but really I do not think that either of us minded too much. The way that he held me and the way that he whispered how everything would be alright it made me feel like everything was going to be just fine. Kili told me that he was going to protect me, that I was going to be fine, everything that I had needed to hear for so long was finally being said. I could feel the tears that kept falling and falling from my eyes, but I could not stop them, not because I was upset anymore but because I was so happy now. I was thrilled because he was finally the person that I had longed for in such a long time. I needed him and vowed right then and there that I would not allow anything to happen to him. I closed my eyes and could feel Kili's soft hand making his way down the side of my body and straight for my stomach and could feel the tiny little butterflies fluttering in my stomach as he softly touched it. I could feel the magic that was coming all around us.

" I love you." He whispered to me as he kissed me once on the lips, the whole time never allowing his hand to leave my stomach.

" I love you so much Kili." I smiled as he knelt down beside of me and lifted my shirt to show my slightly swollen stomach.

" I will love you too, you will grow to be a little warrior, just like me, just like your Mum, and like your Dad, who is rather mad at me and your Mum right now." He said as he rubbed my stomach.

" I found them!" Ori screamed as we both jumped almost out of my skin and all I could do was laugh as he came over with a huge smile on his face. He was too cute.

" I guess that we are horrible at this game of hide and seek." I smiled as Kili gave me a confused look.

" What is that?" He asked.

" You have never played before?" I asked as he shook his head. " You?" He questioned. None of them had.

It was the weirdest thing that I had ever heard of before. Each and every Dwarf in our company and Bilbo had not played a game that we in my Elven culture played as children almost every day. It was a game that I loved to play with my brothers from time to time and it would pass the days away when we were in the forests. I was a professional when it came to that game, hiding away for hours at a time until one day Elros just kind of gave up on finding me and I was left alone in the forest for three hours before my mother started to ask where I was. . . I thought that I was just winning and fell asleep. When I woke I could hear the sounds of the horses running through the woods and could see the soldiers from the whole village running around and screaming my man. At first I thought that my brother had just brought more people to find me. I was a rather foolish child.

So when I had heard that none of my fellow company had never played such a child's game, I had to make sure that they would be able to have a little fun before we would go off into the unknown, and some fun that did not require alcohol or weapons at that! I made it even a little funner by the fact that even after you found the person you would have to touch them for them to be _out_ of the game and onto your side. I did not know why I thought it would be a good idea, but once we started to play with me being the seeker, I knew that it was one of the best ideas that I had throughout this whole time with us being out here. With a smile on my face and running through the woods that were around us, I felt like a child once again. I would run around the trees, chasing around Ori or Nori, and would nearly catch her when someone else would pop up and lift them into a tree- their safe spot for a minute, and I would run off to find someone else as a child would.

We played well through the afternoon and when I was finally getting tired and I had my hands on my knees and trying to catch my breath I smiled. This was something that we needed. But that's when I heard something in the background, a child's laughter in the background. I turned around to see my son once again playing around the trees, looking at me and I knew what was happening the last time that I saw him was. We were playing hide and seek. I smiled at him and raised my hand at him. The small child looked back and waved frantically at me. I smiled and as he turned around the tree with a smile turned up one the other side. I laughed as we played around the tree until he motioned for me to come in closer as if he had a secret. I knelt down beside of him and his cupped his small hands around my ear.

" You will not be able to protect them all." He whispered as he pointed towards the woods and I could see without really looking that Fili was starring at me.

" Still playing a real game." I smiled as I stood back up and ran for Fili as fast as I could and tackled him to the ground. " I think that I got you." I laughed as I stood up and could still see the child's smile as he went behind the tree once again and disappeared.

" Vision?" He asked as he stood beside of me.

" Yep." I said as I starred at the tree.

" You and Kili still together?" Fili asked without any tone in his voice once again.  
" Still together and going strong." I smiled as I looked at him and could feel my heart drop. " I can only hope that we will stay that way."

" _You will not be able to protect them all."_ Was the voice that was still ringing in my head. My head was spinning around and I could only look ahead of me.

With a smile though I pointed to where the rustling in the bushes and instantly ran towards it. We flanked the bush, one going one way and the other going into the opposite. Thinking that it would most likely be one of the older, bigger, Dwarfs, we thought that we would be able to ambush them. But we were wrong, so very wrong. In the instant a warg charged out at us and jumped right on top of Fili's body. But there was something also wrong, it did not bite to kill, did the pick the spots that would be perfect for a killing, it went in with the intent to hurt. I could hear the screams and instantly took up whatever I could and started to bash in the wargs head with the biggest rock that I could find around. There were no orcs around, but I could almost feel that they would be coming soon enough. I looked around and started to scream at the top of my lungs and kept bashing in the warg's head until I could feel the crack of the skull. I screamed and screamed as I kept hitting and hitting even after the animal fell to the ground. I just kept hitting it and hitting it as hard as I could. There was no moment for doubt, no moment to panic, it was all just instinct and for one split moment I felt like the warrior that was Kili told me was growing inside of me.

" Ireth! Ireth! I am alright, you can stop now!" Fili said as the others took my rock away from me. I had to shake away the killer instinct and get my thoughts cleared when I saw the body of the animal thrown off of Fili's bloodied but safe body.

" Are either of you really hurt?" Thorin said as he looked over his nephew's body and then instantly moved to me.

" Me? Oh. . . well. . . yes. I'm fine." I said as I tried to shake everything out of my head but could still not get those words out of my head.

" Good! Good." Thorin said with a faint smile as he looked at the dead animal.

" That was really, truly, brilliant Ireth. I mean how many of us can say that we have killed a warg in the spur of the moment with a rock!" Bilbo said with a smile as he wrapped his hands around the loops of his pants.

" I have." Dwalin said as he raised his hands.

" I as well." Balin said with a smile and Thorin raised his.

" I would-"  
" We all know that you have killed plenty in your time, Uncle." Kili said with a smile as he patted his back and came over to me and wrapped his arm around my waist and wrapped his arm around my body. " I should have been closer to you."

" You saved my life once again." Fili said as he looked down at my bloodied hands and I kept my mind on the words that our child had whispered to me.

" We need to get out of here, right now. We are not going to be safe here. The others will be coming soon. . . very soon." I even sounded cryptic as I looked around and could almost feel the way that they were coming.  
_" You will not be able to protect them all."_

" How do you know this?" Thorin asked.

" How many times have you seen just one warg going around without a group of them following. Also, we have had plenty of time with these guys in the past few months. They have _all _of our scents and they are going to come for us now more then ever. We are getting too close for them to feel comfortable." I shrugged as I looked around and we all stopped talking as we heard the sound of other warg's howling in the distance.

" We need to get back to the water and make our way down to Laketown as quickly as we possibly can. We need to be able to get there and they will be able to help us." Thorin said as Kili looked over at me and brought me in closer to his body.

" I will protect you." He whispered into my ear as he kissed it lightly.

" What did you see back there?" Fili whispered as he could see how rattled up I was.

I took back up my weapons as we all made out way as close as we could to the river and looked to find that all of our barrels were washed away. All of them, gone. We crossed the water to see if our scents would be gone as much as possible. I could feel the screams of the wargs as we looked back to the river to find that the were gaining on us quickly. I could feel the pain that was starting to burn into my wrist and knew that we had to make our way to Laketown as quickly as possible. I could feel the panic that was rising in my body as I looked back to see that they were on the river, they were looking around and I knew that it would only be a matter of seconds as and they would be over that river. I stopped dead in my tracks and remember something that Elrond had taught me when I was a kid. A spell that would help someone if one would ever need the help. A spell about water. I closed my eyes and could feel the others stop dead in their tracks.

I started to whisper the words that I hoped that I had remembered correctly as all but one of the wargs started to run over the river as quickly as they possibly could. I closed my eyes and could hear the sounds of my spell working around us as I smiled and could hear the water washing down the river way. But I could hear the sound of the wargs getting closer as well and it scared me in the way that I knew how close they were getting to me. I could here their breathing, smell their musk, I could hear them talking. As I opened my eyes I could see that the wargs were up so close to us, the orcs that were riding them never saw it coming when the giant wave started to wash up the shores and was only about a few yards away when I could feel arms wrapping around my body and grabbing me away from the river. All I could do was look smugly as the wash came around the bend and came straight for them. From where I had been standing, the water came up and over where the wargs and orcs had been and washed them right away. Kili was running with me in his arms as fast as he could as I turned to see that one warg that had not come across the river was still standing there with the pale orc still on top. I felt my heart hit the ground as I saw him smile at me.

" Run. Faster." I shouted as I could feel the burning in my wrist and tried to cover my scream into Kili's furs. This would not end until one of us was dead and I planned on it being him.


	20. Chapter 20

We took refuge in the walls behind Laketown. Feel Kili's body heaving as we finally stopped and everyone else tried to take a breath, but the whole time I had been griping onto my arm and trying not to scream at the top of my lungs. I could feel every inch of my body heave in pain with every step that Kili had taken away from the Pale orc, I could feel his grip on me getting tighter and tighter. It burned the worst where my branding was and it moved through my body as if it was pouring through my veins and running it's way through my whole blood system. I held back my tears and could feel my body tightening around Kili's as he ran as fast as he could with the group. When we finally made it behind the walls, I could feel my body nearly faint from the relief of being far enough away from the orc for my wrist to stop glowing and my pain fade into nothingness once again.

I could feel the tears that had slipped from my eye fading into my skin around me as I kept myself pretty much in Kili's body, I think that most of them were worried that he had smother me while he had been running because I did not move an inch when we finally came to a rest in the small town. My muscles would not stop gripping onto his furs, I could not move my head from where it was, the only thing that seemed to be working was my lugs which were giving my body small puffs of air. Then my body finally released itself from Kili's body and I could feel myself tremble as Kili looked down at me with a soft smile and I knew he was just happy because he himself thought that he had smothered me. The faint smile that came to his face sent a wave of happiness through my body and made everything seem to break, all of the ice and tension that had been within was gone and I could feel my muscles started to relax once again.

" You always surprise me with your stupidity." I said in Elvish and a smile as he kissed my forehead.

" You know that whatever she just said was nothing good." Fili said to his brother as he smiled down at me lightly.

" Maybe I broke her. . ." Kili said like a child with a newborn in his arms.

" Maybe you should never be left alone with my child." I laughed up at him as I brought his lips to mine and could feel the magic of his love washing away all of the pain from my body.

But there was something wrong this time with our magic. . . it seemed so much less then before. And as I looked up I knew why, looking down at us. . . well more like glaring with Fili. All of the hurt that was in his eyes, everything that he had ever wanted to say to me, all of it was right there in front of the two of us as we kissed one another. I could feel his heartbreak all the way through my body and could feel the way he felt as he looked down to see the person that he loved with all of his heart kissing his own flesh and blood, his own brother. Fili looked like he could had cried. He looked like hell to be honest. I knew that there was nothing that I could do to stop the way that he was feeling, he had his chance and all of the love that I had ever had in my heart had been his at that time, and then he just gave it away.

" You were brilliant." Fili said lightly as he started to walk away from the group as the people of Laketown started to form around us.

" Brilliant is not even the word for what you did back there! You were amazing! The way that you did all of that, the way that you knew how ot get them off of our trail! Ireth, you are. . . you are amazing." Kili said as he wrapped his arms around me and once again brought me in for a kiss.

" You would do _any _Dwarf pride to be his wife." Thorin said as he placed his hand onto my shoulder. " I was wrong about you all along, Ireth."

We both looked over to find that Fili was off a while in another direction just looking at the water from the boardwalk that looked off at the water that we had just come from. I could feel the sorrow that he was feeling and knew the ways that he was thinking about everything his place here, the whole journey, like in general. I knew this because I had thought about it all before as well. But his was because he _knew _that he would never be able to get me back. As long as Kili will have me, I will be his and he will be more than that to me. I felt happier than anything in the world when I was with Kili, he understood me more than anyone. Kili was. . . I thought that Kili was my mate. Love can make people feel crazy things, it can make one think things that would never have been thought before, like someone like me even having a mate in the world, let alone it being with a Dwarf trying to regain his forgotten thrown.

" We are going to the Inn, are you coming Fili?" Ori asked to the heir of the thrown as we all were welcomed gladly into the village. I felt wrong going into another Inn.

" I will join you in awhile." Fili sighed as he waved his hand at us.

" Common, he is having one of his _angsty _moments, he will come along soon enough." Kili said as he placed his arm around my body and tried to lead me towards the Inn, but I knew that it would never happen.

" I think that your brother and I need to sort some things out anyway. . . I think that it is better to do it now before the baby is born rather then have to wait it out until all of the other stresses of learning to rule a kingdom fall onto his. . . and your shoulders." I sighed as I shook him off of me and started to move away.

" Stress? Uncle has already taught us all about ruling a kingdom! Besides, why would I ever have to learn?" Kili asked and all I could do was chuckle.

" Why do you think that most kings have two children, Kili? In case the first one does not make it, they have a second one. Besides, you will never be full taught how to rule a kingdom until it is in front of you to rule, until you are right there with thousands of people looking for you to guide them. Not in the classroom but out there when it is real. No, now would be a much better time to do it then when that all comes. Trust me." I sighed with a smile as I waved him off to the bar.

" Just make sure that you come in soon?" He yelled as he looked back to me and I could see that he was already so worried about me and his brother – my. . . my past, being alone with one another – but there was also no jealously about it, all of the trust in the world as well.

" I will be in within the hour, I promise. Don't get too drunk while we are talking, alright?" I asked with a smile as he nodded and walked into the Inn.

I placed my hands on the railing and starred off into the water that was around us. It was truly something that you would have to see to fully understand it. Legolas told me that when we were finally married that we would have come here after to live for awhile. It is sad that I had never been able to see it before right now. With the light falling into the water and a small mist coming from it, it made everything seem much more mysterious than it really was. It made the sky around us smell like water and the sky seem so much more blue and filled with so many more colors in the sunset. With a sigh coming from my lips I finally looked to see that Fili was looked at me watch the sky with a small smile painted onto his face.

" You look so beautiful when you are in deep thought, you know that?" He asked as he moved a piece of hair out of my face. " How are you feeling?" He asked.

" Right about now? Right now I feel so out of it that it really does not matter." I said as I tried to get all of my thoughts into their rightful places.

" And the baby?" Fili asked as he looked down at my stomach and for once I did not feel like he was violating some kind of secret law that even I did not know about.

" He is fine." I whispered as I placed my hand onto my stomach. " Though I worry that he will be born rather small. . ."

" He is going to be atleast part Dwarf, he will be small." Fili said and this both made us laugh.

" You know what I meant. . . thin." I sighed as I looked up at the sky above. " Have you ever just look up and hoped that all of the answers would be painted in the stars like they would be able to tell you everything that you needed to know? Like maybe, just maybe, fate was playing a fool out of you anymore and that it was all lined out right there for you? If only you would look up?" I sighed once again and looked back down to my shoes.

" No, I think that you are the only one in the whole company that has even thought about the stars for just more than giant balls of gas." Fili said with a smile as he looked down at my stomach. " Our son will be taken care of in Erebor. He will be a prince, he will be safe there." Fili said and all I could do was scoff.

" You are really and truly funny you know that? He will be safe there? No way he will be safe there, there will be all of your people there who _hate _Elfs, he will be part Elf. _He looks like an Elf_. He looks like me! You think that he will be a prince, yes, but he will never be treated as one. Our son will. . . he will be an outcast, just like his brother, like his uncle. Kili was an outcast just because he did not have a big noise, because he did not have big enough ears, I mean he has ears that are smaller than mine! But that is no right to be made fun of! I have heard the stories. Our son will most likely grown a beard, he will look like the enemy, he will talk like one. His sister-"

"_Sister ?_" Fili said as he spun around. " Twins?" He said as he instantly ran his hands through his hair and I could feel the smiling coming to my face.

" No . . . no. But in my dream he did tell me another name and a name that I am guessing would be his sisters. I am going to have two children when I grow older and one of them is going to come soon enough. He will live where he belongs-"

" With his people in Erebor!" Fili hissed as he slammed his fist into the railing.

" With his mother where ever she may go! No matter if she decides to say with his fathers brother or if she decides to go off to Rivendell or the Shire! He will be going with his mother and if you try and stop me from taking my son with me I will have your head on my sword and there will be no doubt in my mind about that." I hissed as I glared at him. " Now let me make that clear to you. His people will not care about him. Your people hate my people. Either way he will be treated differently but in very different ways. He will be hated by your people just because of his race. In mine he will be treated different because he is a part of a great and higher family, he will be treated as royalty. Until where he will be king one day."

" My people will come to him. . ." Fili said lightly with a sigh as he looked down.

" And his mother? How will they come to love the she-elf that was a whore? Or supposed to be married to the man who did not come to your aid's son? To the woman that is not even with you anymore? How will they come to love me?" I asked lightly as I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. " I have family that would love this child more than anything that I can explain. I have Kili who would love and protect me and this child to no ends. And I have you who would love me and make me royalty

and treat me like a queen until your dying day." I shook my head as I ran my fingers through my hair. It was truly a mess.

" They will. . . they- they-"  
" They will treat me as you have. They will act like they love me on the top layer but once you start to peel those back you will see their true faces Fili! I loved you with all of my heart and more then that. I gave you everything that I had! You were my bloody everything and you want to know what you did with that? You _spit _it all back into my face and told me to move on with my life, told me that you did not care where I went. You took my love and thew it off the cliff. Fili, you think that I want to hear all of these things about how much you will try and how your people will, but I do not want to hear of it right now. All I want is for you to be happy for your brother and for you and him to be the way that you were before me. I know that it will be hard and that we will have to be a. . ._different _family because of this baby, but you and I. . . we had our chance. It did not work out the way that either of us had planned and now we have to move on." I sighed as I started to move away from Fili, back towards the Inn that was started to feel like a safe haven.

" Are you saying that we will never get a second chance?" Fili asked and I could hear from his voice that there were tears in his eyes that were choking him up.

" I am saying that we should just move on and see what the hell cards are dealt with us within the next few days. We still have a fucking dragon to deal with before we can start making plans on which cave is going to be this babies." I said as I walked into the Inn and automatically saw a face that I did not think that I would ever see again.

" Nátulcien!" I screamed as I instantly ran to the Elven-girl who was flirting with Thorin, whose look told the whole story of him wanting her to be as far away from him as possible. " How did you end of here? Are you alright? What did they do to you when I left? I have missed you so much?" I spat out in Elfish as I hugged the Elf as hard as I could.

" Ireth! Ireth! Oh my Ireth! I thought that you were dead! I thought that you would have parishes when they took you away! My lovely lady! My Ireth!" Nátulcien said with a smile as she touched both of her hands to my face and then looked back to the company. " I knew that you all looked familiar!"

" My big spenders." I laughed as I moved all of her hair away from her face.

" Very big spenders from what I can feel." Nátulcien whispered as she touched my stomach with her soft hands.

" Can all Elfs _feel _this shit?" I asked with a laugh and she nodded.

" Only with the most powerful of all Elven born children. They could feel it with Galadriel, they could feel it with your brothers, and as rumor has it they could feel it even within your own mother. You come from a powerful line of Elf's, they marry powerful and they have some of the most mystical children there are. This child will be no different." Nátulcien said with a playful smile as she dragged another seat for me and placed it between Kili and Thorin, who seemed to be starring up at us in wonder.

" You look amazing." I smiled as I held onto the beautiful girls hands as tightly as I possibly could.

" And you do not." She laughed as she moved her other hand through my hair. " You really need to bathe."

" See! It's not just me!" I said as I nudged Kili who just laughed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders and as far between myself and Nátulcien as I would allow him.

" Well between the salt water bathe that we got earlier and the bath of sweat that I got off of Kili from him running with me, I think that it would be best to get as much done as possibly before moving forward." I said with a smile as I looked around to find that all of the other Dwarfs were starring right at Nátulcien, at her pure beauty. " They are all starring." I whispered to her in Elfish.

" We need to take up learning that language." Kili said with his uncle as Nátulcien and I laughed.

" Come, have a drink with us Nátulcien, maybe you could tell us more about our mysterious Ireth here." Thorin said as he placed another chair between himself and me.

" Oh no!" I yelled as I placed my hands over Nátulcien's mouth. " There will be no story telling about what we did at that Inn."

" Even after hours?" Nátulcien said with a laugh as Kili took my hand away from her mouth.

" Well now we _have _to hear these stories!" Kili laughed as he placed my body into his lap so that I would not be able to stop my dear friend.


	21. Chapter 21

I could feel the crisp in the air as I awoke the next morning and could not fall asleep. I wondered the shoreline for what seemed like hours just taking everything in. Though I knew that there was nothing that I could do about the Inn, I longed to get those girls out of the hell that I knew that they were in, I longed to free them and could not because of the condition that I was in and the journey had to go on without us making too much commotion. I could smell the sea and the way that it called to me like it had called my father, the way that it seemed to majestic during the day and could be so dangerous at night. I smiled as I placed my hand into the wind and could feel it call me to it with every movement.

" We will see one another again, my father." I whispered into the sunrise with a smile as I could feel the wind move around me and then back out to sea.

Many big ships were starting to come in and I waved and smiled as all of the sailors came off of their boats and would smile back at me and nod as they passed. Most of them seemed like they have been out to sea for a very long time and were all very happy when they stood on land once again. But as I dipped my toes into the water it brought back memories of because near the water when I was a child, splashing around with my brothers with big smiles and laughs on my face the whole time. We would have so much fun at the shore. . . that was the only time that my father would truly be happy being with us is because he had his sea and this family with him. It was really one of the only times that he would be happy. Mother would be with him and would smile and wave to us as we went into the water and played around, always making sure that we were safe and sound.

" Life has always been cruel to you, Ireth." Nátulcien smiled to me as she placed her hand onto my shoulder. " Through what should be one of the happiest things that should happen in your life you have been felt a bad hand of cards. Being in love with one and having him turn his back to you only for you to fall for his brother to find that you are pregnant." I sighed as I sat in the sand.

" You do not think that I have thought of this before, I have thought about it everyday since I found it out. I want to love Fili, I really do, I want to trust him and be with him and have the perfect little family that we _should _be. But. . . I don't know, you know how my family seems to have this curse with fathers being out of the picture. I mean mine was not for me, I pray that Elrond will be for his sons, and me? I think that my son will have the same curse placed on him. I mean if I must, I will be both a father and a mother to my son if need be. I hope that both Kili and Fili will be there for me and this child but if not, I will do what needs to be done." I sighed as I placed my head onto my friends shoulder as she sat beside of me.

" And if something may happen to both of them during this journey?" She questioned as we watched the shore coming in.

" You will not be able to protect them all." I whispered as I looked up at her. " That's what was sad in one of my visions."

" What do you think that it means? I mean you think that something is going to happen that you do not expect or just in general?" Nátulcien asked as I looked up to the sky for the answered.

" You will not be able to protect them all. That's what he said and that is what it means. I mean I really do not know how to define it but I know that something will happen and I will not be able to protect them all. I. . . I owe them my everything and I need to protect them with all of my heart and soul, but I guess that I will not be able to. I will protect the heirs and the Hobbit with everything that I have, they seem to need the most protection. Kili and Fili honestly should not be here at all, they are not the brightest anything. Bilbo. . . well I do not know why he is here at all, but I love them all and will not allow anything to happen to them!" I dug my feet into the cold sand as Nátulcien wrapped her hand into mine and I could see her branding as she could see mine.

" And if something should happen between the brothers, if one should die? What would you do then?" Nátulcien asked and I could feel the panic running through my body.

" Nothing will happen to them. I mean nothing can happen to them. . . I'm going to protect them and nothing is going to happen. Kili and Fili they. . . they can fight and they know how to and as long as they have someone watching over them once and again they will be fine. Bilbo is still learning. One dragon against all of us? We will be fine." I sighed as I looked into the sky and felt the water slowly coming up to my toes.

" There have been whispers of an army starting of orcs and goblins." Nátulcien whispered as she looked up to see another ship starting to come in. " Daytime job starting to come in. Gotta get the girls up and ready to go to make sure that the Inn will be all set up and ready for out night time jobs." She said with a smile as she stood and took my hand into hers.

" I will get you out of this hell as soon as this is done." I whispered as she patted my hand lightly.

" No. . . this is a place that is much better, much more safe and they take care of us here, we are all here because we want to be not because anything has happened to us. They even _pay _us." She smiled as she looked back to the town and started to walk off. " Hey Ireth?" She whipped around as I stood from the sand and started to whip all of the sand off of my pants.

" Yes Nát?" I questioned with a soft smile as she ran her fingers through her hair.

" Just. . . just make sure that you live through this, okay? Do not die for these Dwarfs." She smiled but I could see the look of worry running through her whole body.

" I promise." I said as I placed my fingers to my lips and then to her as she did the same to me, it was something that the Inn girls did to one another if they were sold. It meant love, goodbye, and hope that they were going to a better place.

We marched on without another word to the people in the town. We would smile and nod our heads as we passed people in the town, but did not stop to say where we were going or where we had been. Nothing was said between any of us, we all knew what would be coming sometime between today and tomorrow and as Kili brought me in as close as he could to my frame, I knew that we were all thinking the same thing. We were worried about never seeing our loved ones again, that we would all be killed trying to get into this place and if we did that we would be eaten or killed by the monster that lived inside. Kili kept giving my hand a soft kiss as we would walk and walk through the small paths that lead straight to Erebor. I could see the smile on the face of Thorin that did not seem to want to leave as he saw his kingdom that was in front of us.

We did not sing, did not even tease one another as we walked though. There was a feeling that was going from one person to another and I could feel it through each and ever person. We were all scared, we were all nervous, and we were all happy that it was finally here as well. It was like one of those feelings that one would get in their stomach if it were to be twisted in each and every different way and then snapped back into place. I kept rubbing my stomach and hoping that everything would go according to plan. . . if we really even had a plan. . . which I was not sure if we even really had plan besides to have Bilbo go in alone. But when we got the to mountain we all looked at it and then back to Thorin as if he would know where this all secret door was going to be.

" Kili, Fili, and Ireth. You take the right side near the base. Bilbo you are with me. Balin, Ori, and Nori take the right near the top. . . ." I stopped listening and looked straight at Bilbo with a smile.

" _You will be safe with Thorin. He will protect you, my dear friend." _I smiled as he looked right over to me and I nodded at him lightly.

" _How can you be so sure of that? That he will protect me if I come between him and his kingdom?" _He asked and I could see how nervous he was.  
"_ Because he owes you his life. He will do anything to protect you. . . Bilbo?" _I could feel ym face stressing as I looked to him and he smiled as wide as he could

" _Yes Ireth?" _He asked and I could feel my face blushed.

" _Just make sure that when you are in there and you are doing your thing with the dragon that you make sure that you live through this my dear friend. You still have to show me through the Shrie._"

" _So are you saying that you forgive me for. . . for what I did back there with Fili and Kili and having them find out before you were ready? I am truly sorry that I did that to you Ireth, it's just . . . well. . . well I thought that they deserved to know before. . . before all of this in case something were to happen." _Instantly I thought of the child that I had seen, my child, and I knew that Bilbo saw it and we both starred at one another.

" _I forgive you. Now go, I think that Thorin is waiting on you." _I smiled as I placed my hand onto his shoulder as I took my bow off of my back. " Be strong my friend." I whispered as I passed him and started to try and catch up the Fili and Kili who seemed like they were refusing to speak to one another.

" How are you feeling?" Kili asked as I kept my bow at the ready.

" Let's not talk about it. Focus, please?" I asked as I tried to keep my mind focused.

" She is right, this dragon will be able to hear us coming lone before we will be able to even _see _it." Fili said to his brother.

I seemed to be the only one that was focused on finding this damned door. Looking on walls looking to see if it was a trapped door, anything that even seemed like a lever that would _show _the door was good enough for me and I would through it or touch it. I wanted to find this thing and just be done and over with it. I wanted to kill this dragon before he killed me or someone that I cared about. I wanted to be able to say that it was over and that I finally had _that _stress off of my back. Fili and Kili were bickering at one another and I did all I could do not to send an arrow right between their skills to shut them up. Instead I bickered to myself and shook my head and kept looking for a door that seemed to not be around. But then something happened that I did not expect to happen.

When I turned around to tell the boys that we had come to the others who had given up on searching for the door was well to find that they were on the ground, Fili beating his fist into his own brothers face. I looked at the both of them and could see that something had happened when I was so focused. I was panicked, I placed my hands on my head and screamed for the both of them to stop it. But all they did was look up and then would go back to fighting one another. This was not one of the wrestling matches that normal brothers would do with one another, oh no, this was actual fighting where they did not care if the other one bled. I looked around to see that the others were around me, starring down at Kili and Fili as well.

But I could not allow them to hurt one another over _me_. I mean it did not matter to me if they both hated me with all of their heart as long as they were brothers and still cared about their family – my son included – well then they could hate me for all of their lives. I moved over to the two of them, hearing the yelling that was coming from the rest of the group to just leave it alone and ripped Fili off of his brother and he instantly pushed me off of him and I feel to the ground and looked up at him in shock. I could see the look on his face and knew that he much have thought that I had been someone else and as he tried to help me up I shoved him away as I stood up and looked at the two of them. I had instantly had enough of these two fighting with one another. They were _brothers_ and nothing was supposed to come between their bond.

It was something that I had been thinking about doing for a pretty long time though I guess that it had finally hit me right now. I should have known that it would have never worked in any way. Maybe I was cursed, maybe there was something that was wrong with my family or maybe – hopefully – it was just me. I guess I should have known that it would have never worked with Kili because of how odd it would be with him and me and a new baby that was not his but his brother. I sighed as I moved the hair out of my face and looked at the two of them, though I tried to calm myself down and tried to not seem angry as I spoke, when I started it just seemed to gain and gain in anger.

" Okay let me just get all of this out before either if you open your mouths and try to stop me. This-" I said as I pointed between the three of us. " This is over between us because I do no want to be the thing that breaks you two up as brothers. That is something that you need to have in your family, a strong bond between the two that you will live forever with! Family is so important! And you two used to be so close it was amazing to see and I broke it up! I loved you both and I will never stop loving either of you but this cannot work anymore. I will not pick between the two of you and you will not have to fight over me. I am so sorry, really I am, but I am not going to be the thing that ruined this family." I said as I turned from the brothers and started to just walk away, up the mountain and did not stop for anyone.

But I could feel the presence that followed me up the hillside. I could feel him following me and no one noticing because they did not know what to do and who to watch. When we were finally far enough away I fell to the ground and just curled myself up into a ball, wrapping my arms around my body and just allowing myself to finally break. My whole body trembled as I cried into my knees and did not look up at the figure that was in front of me but I could not stop myself. I could not stop myself, I really did not think that I wanted to. I had just let go the the two people in my life that I could not bare to lose. I was broken and there would be no way to stop me after I started. I just gave up both Kili and Fili because I knew it was best for them. . . but at that moment I thought that it may kill me. I cried for what must have been hours or it felt like it atleast as I finally looked up to find that Thorin was kneeling beside of me and slowly rubbing my back and smiling lightly.

" You. . . you were right. I am _just_ a distraction to this company and I am sorry that I did not see in before. I will follow you till this journey has ended and then I will leave and. . .and you will hear from me when the baby is born, you and your family will be in the child's life but. . . but I will not be here long enough to be able to tell them all of the things that they need to hear. I am going to. . . to. . ." I could feel the tears that were coming to my eyes and allowed them to fall. " I will not come back here once this is all said and done. I will just get in their way. . ." I cried as I allowed the fears to fall.

" You truly loved them?" Thorin asked as he wiped the tears from my eyes.

" Of course I loved them! I would never just play them like a game!" I cried as I hit my hands off of my knees. " I would never do that to anyone as my father did to whoever the hell my mother is I loved your nephews and then you took one away and I had to end it because. . . because of that!" I cried as I looked back to the group yards away.

" Then I have never been more wrong in my life." Thorin said as he took me into his arms and I cried as hard as I could into his furs and finally I felt equal to Thorin as we stayed like this.


	22. Chapter 22

We stayed there, just like that for what seemed like hours, without saying a word. I would try to force myself to stop and Thorin would just hush me and try and calm me down and I would just break once again. Building up walls that I hoped no one would be able to break was a lot harder than I hoped that it would be. It was like I could not stop when I wanted to, I would just crumble again and again. My face was wet, I knew that the tears were staining my face, I knew that I was getting my tears and worse onto Thorin's clothing but he did not seem to care as he would try and calm me down again and again. Finally, when it seemed like I had finally gotten all of what I needed to get out and could not cry another tear, all I could feel from within was emptiness. It seemed so. . . hollow to be like this. As I looked to Thorin he nodded as he moved the hair out of my face for a final time and smiled as he looked at the braiding that had been in my hair for a long time.

" A Dwarf's braiding. Very strong. Seems to never come undone really. Only another person can _pull _it apart and it still leaves a curl in the hair from where it had been." Thorin said as he rose from his place on the mountain side and placed his hand out for me to take.

" What about when more than one comes out at a time?" I asked as I looked at my hair and then to the great king so close to his kingdom.

" More curls, sometimes they even curl back together to make a _new _braid all on their own. Fate can work like that." He smiled as I took his hand and he helped me up.

We walked back to the group in silence to find that they were all sitting around and looking back to the world that was around us, the world that we had just come from. It was odd to think that many of these Dwarf's had been homeless before this journey and that they were so close to their own homeland, so close to having a place that they could finally call their own and rule over it with such might, but were still blocked by so many things. I sighed as I sat in my normal place in the group near Bilbo and was shocked when I saw that Thorin sat beside of me and nodded to me with a smile in his eyes as we both turned and started to look out at the horizon that was around us. I could not believe it, we could not find that damn door that would allow them to have their home back! We could not find that door that would allow us in! Without the door our journey was done and over with and there would be nothing that we would be able to say for it!

" We have to find that fucking door." I hissed without looking at anyone, just watching the birds fly around us.

" Agreed." Bilbo nodded as he looked around at something.

" Aye." Another person said from a different direction.

" Do you hear that?" Bilbo asked as he looked around once again and stood from our line of people.

" Hear what? The bird chirping? The wind?" I asked as I looked up to find that Bilbo was trying to _climb _the mountain! " What on earth are you trying to do? Get yourself killed once again?" I said as I stood and lifted him up to the next level of mountain. " Okay, you have climbed a bit of a mountain, now will you please come down now before you get yourself _killed_?" I hissed as he moved deeper into the mountain. " Bilbo!" I screamed up as I started to climb up after him, the rest of the group looking up as I finally got my head just over to see what he was seeing.

" I. . . I found the door!" I said as I could feel my eyes widening and

" Oh. My. Lord." I said as I looked back down the the rest of the ground and could feel the smile coming to my face. " He found the door!" I screamed as I climbed the rest of the way up and could see the door shinning through the last rays of light. " You found the door!"

" I found the door!" Bilbo said as I ran over to him and lifted his body and spun him around.

" My god! He really did!" Dori screamed as he reached to where he could see it and instantly shot up to the side with us and wrapped us both into a hug.

" Brilliant!" I said as I nuzzled Bilbo's head with mine. " I _knew _that you would prove yourself, I knew that you were going to make it!" I said with a smile as the rest of the group came up to the mountain and brought Bilbo into a hug of joy and excitement. But it was all short lived.

" Well it is time, Burglar. You know what you have to do." Thorin said as he placed his strong hand onto Bilbo's shoulder. " You are the only species that the dragon will not know the scent of."  
" I know this." Bilbo said in more of a sigh than anything else as he went to the newly opened door and took out his sword.

" Wait! You want him to go in there _alone_?" I asked as I shot up and looked from Thorin to Bilbo. " The Hobbit can barely keep up a sword, let alone use it on a bloody _dragon_ if need be! No, he will not be going in there _alone_!" I said as I shook my head.

" Ireth, I need to do this. It would not be safe in there for you, he would be able to take your scent almost as quickly as the rest of the company. No, I can do this. My people are very sneaky people." Bilbo said with a nervous smile coming to his face.

" This is madness." I hissed as I nodded to Bilbo. " Twenty minutes maximum and if you are not out by then I am coming in and shooing anything taller than this." I hissed as I motioned to my shoulders.

" Don't get in her way then Kili." Ori said with a smile as he nudged Kili and I instantly looked away.

" Good luck." I whispered to my Hobbit as he nodded and went into the cave.

Most of us just sat around and did nothing while we waited for our Hobbit to return from the mouth of the cave. But I could not do that, all I could do was try and keep my mind off of. . . well off of pretty much everything that the day had through at me. I looked up at the sky and then out to the world that was around and wondered where I would live in the future, where I would be in five years, everything that I had been holding back came forth and finally, after what could have been years, I sat down just far enough away from the group so that I could not hear their conversations, and just started to think about what my life was going to be like. Where I would live, who I would live with. Where I would be and who I would be, where my children would grow up. With a smile I knew that they would be happy no matter where they lived as long as who they lived with were good people. Hen someone came and sat down beside of me and I smiled as I looked up to see who it was.

" You seemed to be lost in though. . . very deep." Bofur said as he smiled.

" Thinking about my future seems like a very good thing to be thinking about now, since if we do make it out of here alive I will be a rather wealthy, pregnant, Elf with no real home to call hers. I was thinking a place here and a place there. But there are just _so _many places. How do you chose which will be your primary and which will be the secondary?" I asked as I looked out beyond the waves of trees to see the small villages around.

" Are you saying that Erebor will not be your home?" Bofur asked as he looked at me but all I could do was keep looking forward.

" No. It cannot be my homeland. I was never meant to be here to begin with. I am supposed to be out there somewhere. This is a place for Dwarfs, a place that Elfs did not help to protect. I have done my part here and when it is all said and over with I will come back here every year, many more times then just once a year but this will not be a home to be." I sighed as I placed the back of my head on the cold rock.

" And why not?" Bofur asked ask I chuckled as I looked to him.

" Because I do not belong here. I could not watch Kili or Fili marry another Dwarf. I would love to stay and one day watch Fili become king, see him to happy and. . . and married. . . but I could not do it. No one would accept me here, no one will accept my child as their future king. It would be like we are already dead here." I sighed as I looked out towards the sky once again as Bofur light his pipe.

" We all care about you. Hell, I think that we all have grown to love you too. You are a part of our family now more than ever before. Honestly, I do not think that we would have made it without you a few times." Bofur said as we both laughed.

" I am glad that someone else can see that." I smiled as I could see that the sun was starting to set.

" But you will be welcomed and accepted here. You will be safe here and loved here by all of us and our families. You and this king, our future king." Bofur smiled as he looked to my stomach.

" No, we will still be leaving here once this is all said and done. I have done enough damage to the heirs of the thrown now. I would hate to see what they would d to one another if we all lived near each other. Leaving would be best for us." I sighed as I could hear the running steps coming from the mountain and instantly took up my bow and arrow and jumped to my feet.

" Are you being followed by _it_?" I asked as Bilbo ran past me and into the group, my arrow and drawn.

" Most likely yes but I- I know how to kill it!" Bilbo said breathlessly as he places his hands onto his knees and tried to regain air.

" Quickly Bilbo. We may not have much time!" I demanded back to him as I looked into the mouth of the mountain and could see how beautiful it really ways.

" Some of the planting on his chest, it is really weak there. One shot and he would be down and dead." Bilbo said and I smiled as I looked back to him.

" That should be easy-" And all of a sudden without any saying, I was on the ground, knocked out cold.

I felt light as I feather as I opened my eyes and could only see the shinning of gold and jewels coming from around me. Everything was shinning and shimmered in a way that I had never seen anything like it do before. I could feel a smile coming to my face as I noted that I was laying on golden tiles, we had made it. We were in the lonely mountain, we were in Erebor. I could feel the excitement coming to my body as I rose a little too quickly and felt the dizziness in my head as I looked around to see that everyone else was pretty much basking in their own happiness. Most were _in _the gold, digging around and smiling and throwing it at one another. Fili and Kili were playing different instruments that were made out of the most amazing things that I had ever seen. All I could do was smile as I looked around to find that who else but my Hobbit was sitting beside of me with a worried look on his face.

" What- what happened." I asked with a smile as he took my hand into his.

"Smaug. Ripped a hole right out of the mountain when he was taking off and well. . . he hit you with his wing as he passed. Lucky that you only have a small cut on your face. While he was flying away we ran into the mountain. Thorin was the one that actually picked you up and carried you in here. Fili and Kili seemed to stop fighting for long enough to make sure that you were breathing and well. . . now they seem to be just like brothers once again. But I said that I would watch over you while they all went and well. . . did _that_." Bilbo said as he pointed to Kili jumping into the gold.

" Well you can go jump into a pile of gold if you want to now as well. I will be fine, not my first time being knocked out because something hit me." I shrugged as I stood a little and Bilbo kept my from falling back off of my feet.

" She's awake!" Ori said as he ran over to me and smiled up at me.

" How are you feeling?" Fili asked as he stopped playing and ran over to me.

" Fine, thank you." I said with a soft smile as I looked over to him. " So this is it. This is what we came for." I smiled as I looked around and took in how grand it was.

It was beautiful. The halls were so grand and everything about it just made me want to smile for all of the hell that we had been put through. Everything that we had done, all of the injures that we all had been put though. All of it seemed to just make sense on why we did it now. I smiled as I touched my stomach and looked around, it would be a nice place to live. Maybe it was just because I most likely had a concision but I could really see myself living in a mountain for most of the rest of my life. I did not mind the though of living under a king like Thorin, being surrounded by my friends that I thought of as family as I had this child, him growing up here with them and their family. I nodded as I looked around to see all of the different jewels that there was around and just started to put them all on my body and taking different necklaces and placing them around my body because they would fit.

" You are having far too much fun playing dress up." Bilbo said as I threw a golden necklace around him.

" Come! Bask in the wealth that we have just gained from the journey! This is a time to celebrate Bilbo, not a time to be a. .. well a _you_! This is a fun time!" I smiled as I danced around to the sound that Kili and Fili were making with their instruments. " Find me a stringed instrument in here and I will go and play along with them! Bilbo we did it!" I smiled as I took his hands and started to dance with him.

" We need to send word out to the others." Thorin finally said as he looked over to his group with a smile – a real smile- which seemed like it could light up the whole mountain. " Who will go back to retrieve them?"

" I will." Fili said and all I could do was whip my head around and stare at him.

" What?" I asked lightly and as he looked at me I could see the hurt that I had done to him.

" I will too." Kili said as I turned to the other direction.

" Oh no!" I sighed as I moved to the front of the group. " I have a _much _safer and quicker idea. No one is leaving this mountain." I sighed as I moved to the doorway that was now a hole in the mountain and allowed the wind to follow me.

" What is she doing?" Kili asked as he ran after me, the rest of the group following. I waited for the right moment to come over me before I started to whisper into the wind.

" The mountain is reclaimed. Thorin is now the king once again. Erebor needs you now." I whispered into the wind and could feel my words leaving for the hearts of all Dwarf's of all kinds. " Your word had been sent." I smiled as I looked down below.

" Well then, that was fast." Thorin said with a smile, but there was something wrong and we both knew it as we looked at them.

" Those are not Dwarf's. Men." I said as I looked from Thorin to the small town below to find flames spreading around them. " Laketown!" I said as I placed my hands onto my mouth.

" Smaug must have went there after he left here! To go and destroy the people that had helped us then come back and kill us!" Bilbo said as he looked from one person to another.

" They are coming for us then?" I asked with no tone in my voice.

" Yes. It is very likely." Thorin said in just the same amount of tone.

" Great." I sighed as I looked around to find something else was coming that made my heart drop. " No." I whispered as I looked out to see that it was true.

I could see it. The one thing that could send chills up and down my spine would be him coming. Thranduil. Of course he would come with an army once he found out that we had gained the land back. Of course he would want his share in the treasure that he did not deserve. The banners were coming from the tress, soon there would be two armies up against just the small group that we had. I could feel the panic coming through my body as Thranduil finally came into my view. He looked as beautiful as ever but it was behind him that made me worry, I could see him in an instant. Legolas

" What should we do?" I asked as I looked to Thorin who kept his composure.

" We see what they want." Thorin said as he started to go down the mountain.

" And if they want a share?" I asked as I followed as the rest of the company starred at us.

" Then we fight." Thorin hissed.

" Lovely." I rolled my eyes as I followed him and could hear the others starting to follow.


	23. Chapter 23

I tried to smile as we walked down the hill, but I could feel my heart beating out of my chest with every step that we took down this hill. I could feel the way that with every step death seemed to be getter closer and closer. I stayed behind Thorin and did not try and look down the mountain, but I could not stop myself from looking below and finding that Thranduil's eyes were dead step on me as we kept getting closer and closer to one another. I locked my eyes to the front of me and kept them dead step on the Dwarf that was in front of me as we were getting closer and closer to the base of the hill, the riches that we had gained getting further and further from us. I looked back to see that both Kili and Fili had their eyes on me, both with no smile on their faces as they had before. I was going to have to be the peacekeeper for so many different things.

As we made it to the base of the hill it was like see three strong forces come together for the first time. The men of Laketown were angry and bloody, most seemed to just want the death of Thorin right then and there as they had their swords raises at us. The wood-Elfs that Thranduil had brought with him seemed a little less savage, with their bows in their hands but with not weapons within them. I bowed to the king as he smiled to me and lowered himself off of his animal and came to me, arms stretched out to me. It felt like finally being back into the arms of someone who had loved me since I was a child, he had always been like a father-figure to me . . . well the _better _one that I had had when I was young. He instantly took me into his arms and rubbed my back, holding me close and I could feel the smile that was on his face and the warmth of love that he still had for me. I still could not erase the hate that I had for him in my heart for what he had done to my friends though.

" Ireth." He whispered as he looked down at me and smiled. " Look how you have grown since the last time that I saw you. You are a beauty."

" Thank you, Your Majesty." I smiled as he touched my face lightly.

" You are with these. . . _Dwarfs_?" He asked as he looked in disgust towards my friends.

" Yes I am, do you have a problem with my _friends_?" I hissed as I looked him dead in the eyes. " Because if you do. . . we may have a problem." I said as Legolas finally rode up and jumped from his horse and took his place beside of Thranduil.

" Ireth." Legolas said with a smile as he acted like it was the first time that we had seen one another yet again. " How- how long has it been?"

" Years." I whispered with a smile as I took him into my arms. " You really need to learn how to act better." I smiled as I whispered into his ear.

" That bad huh?" He whispered back as he gave my cheek a small kiss.

" So what is it that you have come here for? I know that it was not _just _because you wanted to take a stroll around Middle-Earth." I smiled as I moved from the group of Elfs back to my friends.

" We have come here for the same reason that the people of Laketown have come here for." Thranduil said. Oh cryptic, is _that _how we are really going to be playing it?

" _Which is_?" Thorin said through his teeth as I hit him in the torso with my elbow.

" Compensation." One of the men from Laketown said. " Because you brought that dragon out of the mountain he came and destroyed out land! Everything that we have worked for, our _homes_, are up in flames right now because of you!"

" Because of us? What did _we _do besides take back what was ours? We did not tell that dragon, _hey why don't you leave here for awhile and go destroy the lands that are around us! _No! We simply got him out of our home!" I said as I looked around to find that the other Dwarfs were nodding along. " We have done nothing to cause this on you, though I know that I am speaking for not only myself but for the rest of the company when I saw that I am sorry for what has happened." I could see that I was getting no where with the men.

" It was because of your company that this happened in the first place!" Thranduil hissed as he moved in closer, Thorin instantly taking his sword out, and to that I placed my hand onto the sword and make him lower it.

" Peacefully, remember." I whispered to him as I moved out of my circle of people. " Why is this our fault? Because we went to retrieve what is ours? Because we went to get back what was taken from us so many years ago! Something that _you_ would not help us get back? No, this is surely not our fault for getting back what was _taken _from us. You did what you had to do back then and we did what we had to do now. Maybe if you would have helped them, or any of you from Laketown, we would not have had to do this now!" I said as I looked at them, this was not helping, just making it worse.

" That will not pay the debt that has been done now." A man from said as he waved his sword at me and I could hear Kili placing a arrow into his bow and I looked back and shook my head to him.

" No, it will not. But, what should be done by this is to make sure that it will never happen again. To make sure that all of our lands will be protected from dragons. We cannot do that if we are all not united." I sighed as I knew that I was just stalling. I moved back to the ground and looked to Thorin, we both knew what was going to happen. But then I felt the small nudge of Bilbo

" _Yes, my friend?" _I asked through his head as I looked from him back to the group. Everyone seemed to be bickering to their own race.

" _I have an idea. A way to solve this without bloodshed." _Bilbo said with a weak smile as I nodded and looked down at him from intently.

" _And that it?" _I asked as I needed to know _soon_.

" _We give them what they want. . . I know that it will not go over well with Thorin, but. . . well it will make everything else better. Now I don't want to get you involved in this but. . ."_

" _But you already have. Tell me what you need me to do and I will do it for you. Just make sure that whatever you do. . . it will end this all. And soon." _I said as I looked back to find that the Elfs were still bickered, mostly Legolas and Thranduil.

" _I need to be able to get to all of the treasure. Before they get there. I will be able to get up there, just make sure that this goes on for a little longer and then somehow get the Dwarfs out of here. They all seemed like cornered animals." _Bilbo said as I nodded and smiled as I looked back to see that they truly did, and with that, Bilbo was. . . _gone_.

" What is your price?" I asked to the group as Thorin whipped his head around to me.

" _What_?" He hissed and I could see the look of pure anger coming to his face.

" We need to wait till. . . till the others come for back up. We cannot take all of these people on just by our own. That would be a death wish and you would be killing each and everyone of us. We act like we want to know and then. . . well then we wait." I whispered as I moved towards the group and smiled at them, I being the only female to be found.

" Our. . . price?" A man from Laketown asked.

" Well yes. . . how much would you like for what the dragon has down to you and your town and your people. What is the cost of the what has happened to you? What would _you _like _us _to pay _you_?" I asked with a smile as I moved closer to find that they were all lowering their weapons.

" You will pay us?" He asked and I smiled and nodded.

" Well yes, that is what you wanted, is it not?" I asked with a playful smile.

" Well. . . yes." He said as he looked to the group of his followers. " We will need to. . . to discuss with the others." He said as he looked back.

" You will have till tomorrow night." I said with a smile as he nodded to me and started to leave. " And you, My Lord?" I asked to Thranduil.

" The Dwarfs owe _our _people." He hissed as he kept looking to Thorin.

" Is that so?" I asked as I turned to Thorin.

" We owe you nothing." Thorin hissed.

" Well it must be something or why would they be here?" I smiled as I turned and gave my hand to Thranduil. " I promise that I will look into it. Tell me the amount and I will get if for you, I swear to it." I smiled as he did the same though his hopefully seemed much more evil than mine.

" The Arkenstone." Thranduil whispered to me and I nodded to him.

" You have my word. My lord." I smiled as he nodded to me and raised his hand to his followers. " When I return through your lands, I will give you what you desire."

" I will come for you tomorrow night with the men from Laketown then. You will be ready to leave by then, will you not?" He asked as I looked back to find that all of the eyes were set onto the two of us and I instantly found my eyes drawn to Kili and Fili.

" Yes." I whispered with a nod as I turned back to him. " I will most defiantly be ready by then."

" Good." He smiled as he turned and started to leave. " Tomorrow."

" Tomorrow." I whispered as I made my way back to the ground and instantly started to walk back up the mountain.

We did have have a lot to eat, though we knew that soon we would all be eating like kings and queens. We all laughed and stayed around our collection of jewels. It seemed like there would be nothing wrong in the world. We were all finally happy and it seemed like finally, _finally _we would be able to just. . . just live for awhile. No worries, no nothing. The only pending thought was the enemies that were leaving currently. Thorin was finally smiling little by little. Kili and Fili were getting along and before long Bilbo was by my side once again. I looked over to him and smiled as he just appeared out of the blue, just like some form of magic that he had learned. I wrapped my arm around the small Hobbit and brought him in close to me with a smile as we watched the Dwarf's smiling and laughing and singing their songs.

" It really is a beautiful place to call home." I nodded towards the kingdom as I looked down at him and saw that he was nodding as well. " Did you do what needed to be done?" I asked.

" Not yet. . . I- I really don't know if I should now." He said as he took something so beautiful out of his pocket that I instantly knew what it was.

" Bilbo! You have got to be kidding me!" I said as he hushed me. " Do you understand how much that is to these people? They treasure that thing as if it was all of their babies. That is like. . . like their crown jewel! You have to give it to Thorin." I hissed as I looked to find that the king was still as happy as could be.

" No, not yet. . . we just. . . we gotta get thought tonight." Bilbo said and I looked at him and then back at the group and nodded.

" I hope that you know what you are doing." I sighed as I looked to Fili and could feel my heart drop.

" He has not stopped looking at you all night." Bilbo said as he nudged for me to get up.

" I know." I whispered.

" Well are you going to just sit here or are you going to go over there and finally work this mess out?" He asked as he moved his hands in many different directions. I looked to find that Kili was just leaving his brother to go a different direction.

" Better now than ever." I shrugged as I stood and moved quickly to Fili before his brother returned. It was the first time that we had been face to face in what seemed like years.

" Show me through the kingdom?" I asked with a smile I raised my hand out and he instantly took it.

" I barely remember it to be honest, it will be an adventure." He smiled as he took a torch that had been recently lit and started to walk through the halls with me in hand.

We did not say a word to one another for awhile. We would look at one another and smile and then we would just keep one walking. There was something that just gave me butterflies as I looked at him, though I did not understand what I was feeling towards him. I felt so conflicted inside that I did not understand what was going on. My head and my heart were telling me two totally different things and it almost killed me inside to know that either way I was going to be breaking someones heart. When we finally came to a dead in of rock we finally looked at one another and Fili placed his hand onto my shoulder and looked at me with a soft smile coming to his face, his eyes looking bright when he looked at me.

" You know. . . Kili understands why you did it. As do I." He said with a sigh as he looked away. " You are in love with him, you want to be with him. I will understand if you go off and be with my brother."

" But what if I am in love with you as well?" I asked and I pained me to ask. I did not want to be in love with him, he hurt me in so many ways and yet, I was still in love with him.

" You. . . you do?" Fili asked and I could see all of the hope flooding back to his body.

" Of course I do you fool! You were the first person that I loved and well those kind of things never really leave, do they? I love your brother just the same though. I love you both but. . . but if it were not for this child. _Our _child." I said as I took Fili's hand and placed it onto my stomach.

" Would you be doing this with _me_?" Fili asked as he placed the torch that he had been clutching into a holder on the wall.

" I. . . I don't know." I sighed as I tried to turn away from him but he kept my face towards his with such a light touch that it made me smile. " I slept with your brother." I whispered.

" I know. . . it was kind of obvious and he also told me about it after you left us. . ."  
" He _did_?" I asked as I could feel my blood rushing to my cheeks.

" Yes, we had a little heart-to-heart while you were gone. He. . . he would not fight it if you chose me. He thinks that you should be with the babies father. But I think that you should be with the person that you love. We came to this little agreement though, whoever you chose, we will not get in the way of your choice. . ." Fili sighed as he moved in closer to my body and I could feel myself going back towards the wall. " But I do not think that I would be able to last one more day without you."

" I- I do not know who to chose." I whispered as I turned my head away from him. " I love you both so much and. . ."

" What is your heart telling you?" Fili asked as he placed his other hand onto my heart, leaving his other onto my stomach.

" Fili. . ." I whispered as I looked at him and moved my head in closer to him.

" Ireth!" He said as he moved his hand from my heart to the back of my head and brought me in closer.

" Fili! Ireth! Oh thank god we found you! You must hurry! There is a band of Orc and Goblins coming straight for the mountain! We will need everyone for this!" Ori said as he came around the corner with Dori close behind.

" What?" I asked as Ori grabbed me by the wrist, Dori doing the same to Fili was we were rushed through the winding halls and back to where we had come to and right out the hole that the dragon had made to see torches coming for us.

" How many?" Fili asked as he moved close to his brother who looked from me to Fili.

" Hundreds. Possibly more." Thorin said blankly as he looked below. The sound of an army marching towards us with such deep it made me heart drop to the ground as I looked to Kili and saw that his face was pale and blank. Fili's was not that much better. My throat seemed to be clogging up as I tried to take in a breath and it only came out as a small gasp.

" We are doomed." I whispered as I looked down and knew that the pain was going to be coming from my wrist soon enough.


	24. Chapter 24

" How are we going to do this?" I asked as I took my bow off of my back and instantly felt the pain of my branding as it started to glow.

" _We _are going to go and fight these fools. You are going to stay right here and try and keep yourself alive." Kili said as he came over to me and placed his hand onto my shoulder and I instantly took his hand into my, placing the both of ours near my heart, and held onto the tightly the pain was almost unbearable.

" No way I am letting you guys go and fight this one without me. No. I am going this time." I said through my teeth as I looked to Thorin.

" I do not know that in your state. . ." Thorin said as he looked to me.

" No. You cannot keep me from this one, you will not just sideline me like this. No matter what you do, no matter how you try to keep me out of this. . .it will not happen!" I said as I moved through the pain. " My place is here with you, with. . . with the people that I have grown to love like family, and you will _not _keep me from fighting with them if not only for them." I said as I looked down and was almost in shock to what I saw. " Thorin?" I asked as I pointed below to see the shock come to his face as he looked down as well.

Coming from two different directions were two different very large armies. The armies of the people that we had just been fighting with not two hours before was coming to our aids finally. If not for us, they were trying to keep these creatures from coming to them next. All I could do was smile when I finally saw who was leading the army of men when they finally came to view as we ran all of the way down the mountain. Of course the only person who would be able to get both parties to come and help us would be Gandalf and he was there, smiling on top of a horse as we all came and smiled at him. I looked as the armies came into view beside of us and we all stayed in silence as we could hear the matching of Goblins and Orcs getting closer and closer. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest as I looked to see Fili node to me.

" Stay close to me, I will protect you." I whispered to Bilbo as he looked up and nodded at me, there was a pure terror in his eyes but I could feel the bravery that was also bubbling up inside of him.

" Good to see you Gandalf." Thorin said as they quickly brought one another into a hug and as soon as it started it as over. All I could do was smile as he counted each and everyone of us out loud and smiled with a nod as he noted that everyone was here.

" Every one. . . plus one." He noted with a smile as he finally got to me and I dropped my arms to the ground and looked around.

" Is it _that noticeable_?" I hissed with a smile as pretty much everyone nodded at me. " Well if we live through this remind me to wear big and flowing dresses for the rest of time." I said to Bilbo as we could hear the roar of orcs coming straight for us.

" Arches we need to get to the highest point, get them before they can even be near the rest of them!" I shouted as Thranduil nodded for most of his men to follow me.

" Take _your _Hobbit with you. Keep him out of my sight." Thorin hissed as Bilbo instantly followed me.

" What was _that _about?" I asked as I lead to the group to a higher point just a bit up in the mountain.

" Oh, Mr. Baggins here was trying to steal some items from the mountain!" Kili hissed as he moved on up the mountain. " _Like he wasn't going to get enough_." He shook his head as he kept going.

" So they found out?" I asked and all Bilbo could do was nod.

" They think of me as a traitor now." Bilbo whispered as the Elfs started to line up beside of me. It felt so odd to know that I was the leader of this group.

They all looked to me and when I could tell that they would be in sight soon I started to walk along the back of the group. Looking each and everyone of them in the eyes as I past them from one to another. They ll looked at me and I knew, _I knew_, that for most of them this would be the first time that they would be in battle. I kept my hands behind my back, holding tightly onto my bow as I passed each and every one of them. I could feel my own heart racing with every footstep I took because I knew that was another footstep that the enemy was getting closer, with each breath my wrist was making it harder to even blink. I got to the people that I loved and noticed that there were three, three people I would be looking out for up here. Bilbo. Kili. Legolas. Of course I should have known that he would be here and his specialty, like mine, has always had a bow and arrow in his hands since he could hold one. I nodded to him and moved in close to him.

" You protect these two for as long as you can." I whispered and he nodded as I kept coming till I finally came to Kili.

" You think that you can handle this?" Kili asked with one of his playful smiles coming to his face.

" No." I said as I looked back to _my _group. " But I will. Please, just make sure that you do not do anything stupid." I whispered. I also noted that there was a group of men going onto and making it harder for the enemy to come to. Everyone looked nervous and scared and I knew it would be time to act soon.

" Look and the people that are around you. Yes, before this very moment you may have hated them, maybe even wanted to kill one anther. But now look at each other. You are bothers now, you are bonded by war because this-" I said as I pointed out below to the sound of yelling from below. " This is war. You must protect the people on each side of you! You _must _keep your brothers alive. Yes, some of you will very likely die. But until that moment when you cross over to the afterlife, make sure that you go down a warrior! I will fight for you all. Will you fight with me?" I asked as a roar came from my company. " Then make them pay through the noise when you see one of your brothers fall. Make them pay for every Man, every Dwarf, every Elf!"

" You really know how to rally a group." Bilbo whispered from beside of me.

" Bows at the ready!" I screamed as I moved to the opposite side of the line from Kili and looked down at my army. I looked down to see that the army of men was squeezing the enemy tightly through, killing as many as they could.

" They will not make it much longer." The Elf beside of me whispered.

" Focus." I replied as I looked down to see the first of men fall to the ground, soon more and more were falling.

" Arrows at the ready!" I screamed as the sound of arrows being taken and placed to their bows could be heard. I looked down to see that they were twenty yards from the beginning of the armies, all three leaders and Gandalf being at the front, the rest of the company close behind. " Fire!" I screamed as the sound of the arrows flying past whipped around my ear. An instant pain from my wrist getting worse. He was getting nearer. " Second row, fire!" I screamed and smiled as I saw that the enemy was dropping like flies. Thorin only looked up for a second and nodded in approval. " Just because they are dropping right now, do nor think that you all will not be in comb-" I could out before an arrow shot past my head. " First row! Fire" I screamed as I looked down and instantly shot the orc that had shot at me straight in the head.

We stayed like this for awhile, blocking arrows and hitting some. Some people fell like flies because it was their first time in a fight and some thrived in the part of combat. I noted that my group of Elfs had diminished almost as quickly as we had got up here as the army started to advance towards the front of the army below. I looked around and could count from the small group that I had when we started that now there was not more than fifteen still standing. I could see the panic that was on Kili's face in the way that he could see that Orc's charging towards his family below and I knew that we would not make it up here just as well as we would most likely not make it down there either. I sighed lightly as I moved towards Legolas and placed my hand onto his shoulder.

" Keep your best men up here with you, the others send with me." I said as I pointed to Kili to follow me. " Keep the Hobbit safe up here!" I screamed as I nodded to Bilbo and felt the soft touch of Kili as he nodded to me.

" What are you doing?" He asked as we moved down the mountain, shooting as we went.

" There is no way that once we start fighting that we will make it through this. There are too many of them and too few of us. How would _you _like to go out, with some Elfs that you do not know, or the family that you love. I know which one I would want and which one I am going to do." I said as I started to jog towards the battlefield.

" I will die beside of you." He said as he took me by the waist and slammed me into the rock wall and kissed me as hard as he could.

" Kili, if we somehow make it out of this. I. . . I love you will all of my heart. I am yours." I whispered between kisses and smiled as he wrapped my legs around his waist and kept my there for as long as he could.

" I love you as well. You will live like a queen until the day that I die. You will be mine and I will be yours. We will raise this child the way that he should be raised. You, me, and him, we will go where we want and do what we please." He smiled as he touched his hand to my stomach. " Come when we are needed, stay for as long as we please and go when we want."

" It will be amazing." I smiled as I kissed him with all of my might, both knowing that it will most likely never happen.

" I love you." I whispered to him as he placed me back onto the ground.

" I love you more." He whispered back to me as we completely let go of one another and started to walk back into battle, me taking out my sword and Kili keeping his bow loaded with one of his best arrows he had.

There is no way that I would not be able to say that I was not scared, I was scared out of my mind as we cut out way through the group of orcs that got into out way as we scared and made out way to find that Fili was clutching onto Thorin. I dropped to the ground beside of him and looked at Thorin, he was hurt badly. I noted that there was a dent in his skull and knew, he would not make it to the next hour. I looked from Fili to Kili and nodded for them to stay beside of their uncle. I took my sword from beside of me and moved in closely to the king. I could feel that the tears were coming to my eyes as I felt him lightly wrap his arm around my head to bring me in closer.

" My niece, my family. It was an honor going onto this journey with you." He whispered to me and I nodded to him as he gave me a soft kiss on the forehead.

" It was an honor being with you, my King. You will be fine though, I smiled as I touched his head and remembered the gift I had been given. The pendant of Lothlórien, protection and safety within. " Shelter me, this may only work once and I will be rather weak after this." I said and Fili and Kili instantly went on guard.

I did not know if it would work, I did not have enough power to do it on my own but I knew that there was magic somewhere within the pendant as I wrapped it around Thorin's trunk of my neck with a smile as he looked at me. It was hard to keep the Dwarf from fighting as I started to chant different healing words that I knew to him and could feel what little magic I had within my body leaving my frame and going into Thorin's. His wounds instantly starting to heal and his body starting to regain the life that had almost left before. I smiled as I could feel heart starting to begin to come back to a normal life and turned to let the boys know that their uncle was going to be alright. That the king would live to see anther day, but I was sent into shock with what I saw.

I instantly tried to get up, to block it, but I was too late, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion as I looked to find a arrow going straight for Kili's chest. I screamed at the top of my lungs for him to move, to block it, but it was too late. He fell to the ground beside of me and I scrambled to get to my feet and I did not care at that moment if I was hit by and arrow or the blade of a sword. I moved to his side and could see the blood coming from the wounds as I took the pendant off of Thorin and tried to place it onto Kili's body. An arrow was right through his heart as he smiled up at me, blood was coming to his mouth. Fili was by my side within a moment.

" Kili." I said and could feel the tears coming to my face. I tried to place the pendant over his head but he would not allow me to.

" Brother you must allow her to do this." Fili said as I placed my hand into Kili's.

" You will be too weak then." Kili whispered. " It. . . could. . . kill you." He said as he touched my face softly.

" I do not give a damn about that right now you fool! You need some help! Now!" I whispered as I wrapped the pendant around his and my wrist and looked to him, the color in his face was fading, quickly. I could feel the tears swelling up in my eyes as I started to chant until Kili placed his fingers onto my lips.

" Do not worry." Kili whispered with a smile as he pulled my body in closer to his. " Just kept me like this, holding me tightly." I shook my head intently as I looked down at him, the tears falling from my face.

" Kili. No. You will live for me, you have to! Remember what you promised? We are going to have a life together. Me, you, and this baby. " I cried out as he moved the tears out of my face and smiled up at me. " I'm going to take care of you. You are going to be fine." I whispered as he moved me in closer to him and he leaned in and gave me one more kiss.

" Just shelter me and protect me till I am finally asleep." He whispered with the smile slowly starting to fade.

" I will show you have to live a hundred thousand years if I could. You have got to live Kili! I- I will give you my immortality. Please. God no, no. You, you are going to be fine." I said as I looked at my hands to find they were covered in blood.

" Don't worry about me, Ireth. I feel no pain." Kili smiled as he touched my face lightly with his bloody hand. " You will keep me safe and warm . . . right here, next to my nephew. . . your here, Fili's here. My nephew is here. That's all I need to know." He whispered as I leaned in to his frame and clutched his body near mine. " You were meant to be with him all along." He whispered to me as he leaned in and gave me one final kiss.

" I. . . I love you so. . . so much." I whispered to him as I could feel the tars streaming from my eyes and all he could do was nod.

" Now I can die happy." He whispered to me as he closed his eyes.

" KilI! Kili no!" I screamed as I shook his cold body as hard as I could as if he was only asleep." No! No, no no no no!" I said as I flung my body onto his and sobbed. I could not feel anything as I looked down at his bloody body and knew that it would never move from it's place on the ground ever again.

" Ireth!" Fili screamed as I looked up and instantly threw my sword above my body. But what I could not believe was who I was starring face to face with. The Pale Orc.

" So finally we meet once again." I smiled as I used all of my strength to hold my ground and stand. Moving my sword quickly and trying to kill him as quickly as I could. " Shall we end this once and for all?" I asked with a sick smile as our swords stayed where they were in a dead-set battle.


	25. Chapter 25

I smiled as he looked at me and I did the same thing to him. I knew that he knew all of my secrets, but I was willing to die right then and there. I could feel nothing, really could not hear anything either. We were all going to die on this battlefield anyway. There was no way around it, there were so many orcs than there were anything else. I looked back to Kili's body for only a second and could feel the sharp pain that was coming from my torso getting worse and worse as I looked back to the Pale Orc and all I could do was smile and laugh. For only a second, less than that really, he looked scared. . . truly scared and all I could do was hold my smile and stare at him death in the eye as I dropped my sword to the ground, tore the bow and arrow off of my back and sent an arrow flying into the orc's skull. This, of course did not stop him from coming after me, but as I stood there and waited for death to come to the both of us something happened that I did not expect.

My magic had worked, the king lived. Thorin was up from where he had been on the ground and slit the head right off of the orc's body and with a thud it fell to the ground. The moment that happened there was a rush that went through my body, every fiber that I had, the fire and pain that had been there was washed away with an icy cold chill. All I could do was stare up at him as he smiled down at me, but something within me was finally broke for the final time. I fell to my knees and just starred up at Thorin, I could not feel anything anymore as I looked up at him the the falling light, I did not know what to do. I felt like I was broken from the inside out, from even within bones and muscles. My heart had finally cracked and broken into a thousand pieces, _I _was broken. I could not feel, could not do anything but look up at Thorin really.

" I tried to protect him." I cried as he knelt down beside of me and looked me dead in the eyes. " I really did. I mean I tried to protect them both really. Kili, Kili was supposed to be by my side . . . he was supposed to. . . _You will not be able to protect them all._" I whispered as I looked to Thorin.

" What did you say?" He asked as he looked at me and started to note where I had been injured.

" _You will not be able to protect them all_." I whispered as I looked to Kili and then back to Thorin. " I tried so hard and I could not do it." I whispered. " I could not protect all three of the heirs to the thrown." And that was when Thorin had enough of my nonsense talking and slapped me with the back of his hand as hard as he could, I could instantly feel blood coming to my mouth.

" Thorin!" Fili hissed as he looked at his uncle with pure rage on his face.

" I needed that." I whispered as I stood from my place and smiled as I could hear the roar of a bear coming from one way and the screaming of eagles coming from the opposite direction.

" We. . . we are being save." Fili said as he turned around in a circle to look fully around. " Make them pay through the noise." Fili said as he stood beside of me.

" Make them pay for every person." I said as I turned and looked him dead in the eyes.

" Till the last Dwarf is left standing." Thorin said as we fought on, one beside the other. But it was all well and said and done until the goblins and orcs had their backs up against the walls like wild animals. Madness started and wild shooting started

I must have been hit. I could feel the intense pain coming from my shoulder as I looked at it and found myself on the ground. It was on the wrong side of my body. . . but still, it ripped right through my whole shoulder and as I looked up I could see the enemy fleeing from every different direction. I smiled as I looked around to find that others were starting to run in every different direction. The company, my family, were coming back to our aid, they were all alive. With a smile I started to name each and everyone of them as they either ran after the enemy as they sent them from the battle line or they would start to look around and find the dead that was around. Huddling around me and trying to find someone who knew anything about medicine. But I just smiled and said their name and kept a number in my head as they went past.

" Nori, Ori, Dori, Oin. . ." I smiled as I watched the brothers fight alongside one another. " Thorin and Fili. . ." I noted as they were fighting right in front of me, keeping my safe. " Bofur, Bombur, Bifur. . . " It was becoming almost funny how they were fighting in family groups. " Gloin, Dwalin, and finally. . . Balin." I said to my friend who was kneeling beside of me, this is when I noticed that there was an arm around my body, I looked and noticed it was Kili's. " Soon." I whispered as Balin looked at me with such concern.

" Dear Ireth, what have you done?" He asked as he touched my head lightly.

" Fought." I laughed as I could feel myself slipping. I could feel the pain coming in waves with each and every breath, worse when I laughed. " Did. . . did you know that an Elf can die. . . most people. . . do not know that. . . mortality wounds . . .they can kill us." I smiled as he moved the hair out of my face.

" This, my dear is nothing more than a mere scratch." Balin said with a smile as he looked to his brothers and nodded as I could hear that most of the enemy was long gone.

" We need to get her medical attention. Now." Gloin stated as he looked around.

" An Elf. They. . . they will know how to . . . how to make me better. . . if there is a way." I coughed and could feel the blood rushing to my head. " Balin!" I said as I held onto his armor on his shoulder.

" Yes, my Dear?" He said with a smile as he looked down to me.

" You have to. . . to promise me something." I said as loud as I could as Fili knelt down beside of me.

" Anything that you need, you will have." Balin replied with as Fili placed my head into his lap.

" Ireth. . ." He whispered to me as he looked down at me and I could feel a splash of a tear falling onto my face.

" Keep her body still, Lad." He hissed to Fili.

" If. . . if need be,if I am fading too quickly for the Elfs to. . . protect me. . . you need to. . . take the child from my body. He will be strong and he will survive. Small, very small, but strong. Our babies . . . Elven children, grow at a much faster rate then normal children. If I should fade. . . you _must _do it." I said through the pain.

" But it will not come to that." Fili said and I could feel a tear splash onto my face. " Ireth I cannot lose you as well." He wept as he looked down at me.

" I swear on it." Balin whispered as he moved his hand out towards Fili, who looked at him in distress. " I may need one of your hunting knives, Lad."

" You are not going to cut her open." Fili hissed as I slowly placed my hand onto his arm. " Not here, no. I will not allow it!"

" Our child may need it, Fili. No one else needs to die today. . . it's only if. . ." I whispered as I looked up to him to find that he was weeping like a child.

" Fili. . . give it to him." Thorin said as he placed his hand onto his nephew's shoulder and Fili instantly gave the knife to the elder.

" Bilbo. . ." I whispered as I looked up to Thorin. " He. . . he is only doing what he. . . he thinks best. Please remember that." I whispered as he nodded and understood.

" Ireth." Fili said as he shook my eyes awake. " The medical Elfs are here." He smiled as I looked from behind to see Legolas leading some Elfs towards me.

" Oh no. No." Legolas said in Elfish as he knelt down beside of me.

" My Hobbit?" I whispered with a smiled as he nodded to me.

" Good." I whispered as I looked up to find that the stars were shinning down at me. " Injros. One of our great stars." I said as I pointed to it. The next thing I could see was black. Then. . . nothing.

I was dead, I have to have been dead. It must have happened. Like there was no way around it. But when I opened my eyes, I did not see what I expected. There, sitting in a chair in front of me was Gandalf, smiling and smoking a pipe and he looked over to me and nodded. I tried to sit up from what I knew was a bed and look at him, but the pain in my shoulder instantly stopped me from doing that and right there and then I knew, I did not die and I was _fully _alive. I cried out in pain as I looked over to find a white cloth with blood starting to drip from it instantly. I gave a soft cry as I placed my hand onto my shoulder and noticed that there was a wrap around my wrist as well as Gandalf slowly walked to me and sat at the edge of my bed.

" Took quite a long bit of time to get that off, but I did tell you that I would get it off of there eventually." He smiled lightly as he looked down at me, I knew that he could feel the pain that was in my body and in my mind. " The pain will ease."  
" My body is in pain that medicine and magic can heal, my heart. . . it will never be spared." I whispered as I looked around and could feel a panic as I saw that most of the beds that were around me were filled. Spinning around and counting each person in a bed, sometimes two. " No!" I whispered in panicked as I counted each Dwarf, my hands going to my each side of my head as it shook. All of them.

" Ireth!" Galdalf said as he placed a hand on my good shoulder and made my lay on the bed." They were waiting for you to wake. Only minor cuts and bruises but that is it."

" Really?" I asked with a smile as a wave of relief came to my body and I could feel myself easing back and then I noticed my stomach. " My child. . .?"

" Still safe within his mother, you passed out because of blood loss. . . nothing more happen to you after that. The Elf's knew what they were doing." Gandalf nodded as the curtains started to open themselves. We were at the peak of the mountain, it was so beautiful outside, the sun was starting to come up and was shinning through the windows and into the Dwarf's faces.

" Big day today. . . sad day, but a rather big day as well." Gandalf whispered as he looked down so that we were not facing one another.

" You did not. . ." I said as I could feel the tears instantly coming to my eyes. " You did not wake me, for _this_." I said as I looked and I instantly knew by the looks on the waking Dwarf's faces what they meant.

" I thought that you would want to be there. . . for Fili and Thorin. And for yourself. . . to say goodbye." Gandalf whispered as he placed his hand onto my good shoulder. " Better to regret. . ."

" Than to not know at all." I said as I felt the tears fall from my eyes as the others rose from their beds, stretching and groaning as they looked over to my bed.

" Ireth! Wake up everyone! She is awake!" Ori said as he shook everyone from their pale and they all turned their heads and smiles as I lightly waved to them.

Almost all of them huddled around my bed and smiled down at me as I felt awkward as they spoke of how amazing I was in battle. I tried to shrug it off and tell them that I tried my hardest and then all nodded and would smile. I felt like a child who had just come through some horrible kind of surgery. Thorin stayed right by my side the whole time and I could see in his eyes that he felt the same way that I did, I could not bare to look into Fili's eyes. One of the nurses that had come with the race of men nodded to the others as she came in with a black dress in her hands and some other things that were in black. I could feel my heart stop as I knew what was going to happen today. . . it was Kili's funeral .

" Everyone out. . . you all must be getting to what you need to be doing as well. No one wants to be late this day." She said in an accent that I could barely understand as most of them nodded and lightly hand onto my hand and squeezed it or hissed it as they passed.

" No. Don't leave me." I whispered to Fili as I grabbed onto his hand tightly. " I do not want to be alone right now." I said as his eyes finally met mine.

" I do not think it is wise." The woman tried to say as Thorin placed his large hand onto her shoulder.

" Out." He said as he nodded to me and they left together.

" Thank you." I whispered before they left and looked to Fili. " Help me get all of this on?" I asked as he smiled to me with my arm wrapped up.

" Of course."

They gave me a veil to wear over my face so that no one would fully be able to see my cry like a baby. Something to keep my hair back so that it would not get in the way. It was a beautiful service though, beautiful flowers that reminded me on Kili so much, they made me smile just a bit as we passed them. I held onto Fili's hand as tightly as I could as we walked side by side through the many different halls that lead to different places and all I could do was look down at the people that were bowing towards us. After Thorin and the boys mother, Dís, I could not bare to look in front of us to see the coffin that they had given to Kili, he was going to be buried with all of the greats of this kingdom somewhere they had a vault for the kings and queens of past. No one seemed to care that there was an Elf walking through their most sacred halls or the fact she was sobbing like a babe. What the did stare at was my stomach, which was now clearly showing and the way that I held onto their heir to the thrown.

We stayed at the vault- the company and Dís for a long time after the precession was sad and done with. I could not stop starring at the words that were written in a language that I did not understand, the way that each word seemed like a sentience. I softly touched the word that had been craved into stone and kept my head down low as Dís came over to me and lifted my chin with her finger, a soft yet hurt smile on her face as she lifted the veil from my face to see the tears that were streaming down my face, most of the others were speaking about their shares near the edge of the vault. Fili and Thorin were a small distance from the two of us. Kili had her hair, Fili her noise – though Fili's was much longer.

" You are the one that I had been told about?" She asked with no tone really in her voice as I nodded, my voice not seeming to want to come through. " You protected my sons when no one else could, you saved their lives so many times and the life of my brother as well. I will never be able to thank you enough." She said as she wrapped her arm around me.

" I am just sorry that we had to meet under these conditions." I finally spoke out as she held me in close.

" I am just happy that we got to meet, from what I have been told, you are planning on leaving Erebor soon enough, with my grandchild. Leaving my son who would take your hand in the instant, leaving the land that _you _fought for." She more questioned than stated.

" I am. I plan on leaving soon enough." I whispered as I looked to find that Thorin was trying to keep Fili distracted, but his eyes were step on me and his mother.

" Why?" She asked with her cold hand coming to my good shoulder.

" I am not wanted here by many. Most likely hated by more. I feel it would be better for me to leave soon enough before things get. . . sticky." I said and the word seemed all wrong as it came out, but Dís simply nodded to me.

" You will return though, with my grandson?" She asked and I nodded with a soft smile, it was as much as I could get out.

" I will return, you and your family will be the first to know when I go into labor, when the child is born if you are not there then or if I am not here." I said as I looked to Fili. " You have two amazing sons."

" Had two, now I have one and another amazing grandchild on the way." She said as he extended her hand to Fili to come and he did almost instantly.

" Mother?" He asked as he took his mothers hand.

" You should have kept her while you had the chance." She whispered with a smile as she left the vault, leaving us there, alone.

" She could not convince you either?" Fili asked as he finally broke the silence.

" Of course not." I sighed as I placed the veil back over my face. " I should be packing soon, Bilbo will want to leave soon enough and. . . and." I could not say another word, my heart was broken enough and I could not look up to see Fili's broken heart break even more. I ran like a coward from the vault, packing up as quickly as I could and taking as much treasure that they would give me that I could carry on horseback and with a blessing from Thorin and a ring from his own hand, I rode as quickly as I could from Erebor, from Fili, from Kili, from everything.


	26. Chapter 26

**Six-Months Later**

**The Shire **

I was still trying to rest, labor was something that I did not expect to be so difficult and more than that, painful. I had been early, labor coming about two weeks before we had expected it, so it had just been me and Bilbo there, screaming through most of the night. Funny thing was, Bilbo was screaming more than I was. Some neighbors came and looked into the widows to see what was going on, some of the kinder hobbit-women came and took over for Bilbo who immediately went outside and did not come back in for the rest of the night. I did not know that such thing could happen to a body, that one creature could be in such pain one moment and then the next it was just like. . . nothing once again and then right there in front of me, crying and squawking was my child. I smiled as I held onto him as tightly as I could, whispering small things to him in Elfish as the women started to take away all of the soiled material.

" Quite now, Injros. My midnight star." I whispered to him as the women left just like the came and Bilbo slowly came back into his house.

" Tiny little bugger." Bilbo said as he sat beside of me.

" _Tiny_?" I said with a huff as I looked down at him. " Tiny, but very strong." I smiled as I noted how long his noise was and smiled to Bilbo as he noticed it as well.

" I'm glad to see that he is a rather quite Dwarf. Too many loud ones have been in my house in the past year." He smiled as he placed his arm over my shoulder.

" Will be gone as soon as my little hole is made in the hill beside of you. I swear on it." I smiled as he shook his head.

" No worried on that. Besides, you are still planning on going to Rivendell when the baby is born . . . well now that he is born a little before hand."

" I should tell Fili and Elrond. Send a message to them both." I said as I tried to stand to move to the window to use what little magic I had left in me.

" No. You should get some rest. Send the message in the morning. Besides, with the whispers that go around in the Shire, they will surely know by morning anyway." He said as he helped me up the stairs to the small room off of the side of his.

" You are truly a wonderful friend." I said as he helped me into bed, my body clutching to Injros. " I will owe you for what you have done for me and my child."  
" Call it equal for all of the times that you saved my life." He said as he waved his hand to me and gave Injros a small kiss on the head. " Tomorrow morning I will go to the market and get everything that I can find for the child."  
" You know where my treasure is." I smiled as I waved towards the corner of the room to the flowing amount of treasure I had.

" Call it a gift, from me." Bilbo said as he shook his head and left the room. " Goodnight."

" Goodnight, _my friend._" I said in Elfish as I looked down to my sleeping child.

There was something wrong when I awoke. It was just before dawn and my child was seep in a dead sleep beside of me. But I could hear the noises of people downstairs. I was in a state of panic as I believe that someone was trying to break into my dear friends house! A burglar in _my _burglars house! No. I instantly took my rob from where it hung on the door frame and searched around for whatever weapon that I could find. Looking all over my room as quietly as I could, the only thing that I could find was a fire poker from my fireplace where the fire had died long into the night. I looked over to my child to note that he was safe in the middle of my bed and nuzzled him lightly to check that he was still breathing.

" Stay quite, little one." I whispered to him, though I knew that there was no way that he would understand me yet and quietly left the room.

I looked around the upstairs to find that there was no one up there yet and as I crept my way down the stairs I could hear the voices were getting louder and louder as I made my way down them. There seemed to be so many, how was I going to defend myself with a _fire poker_? I swung it around so that the sharper side was with me and the more blunt side was out as I made my way down all of the other stairs and hit the first thing as hard as I could with a loud thud. But when I looked to see what I had hit I instantly dropped the weapon to the ground and placed my hands onto my mouth to over my jaw hanging from where it had been.

" Gandalf the Grey, what on earth are you doing here? In my house? Before the sun has even fully rose into the sky?" I hissed to him as I placed my hand onto his chest to find that he was still breathing and as he rose he smiled to me lightly.

" We're here for the baby shower of course!" Ori said as he came around the corner.

" Baby shower. . . oh no . . . I did not have one of those." I said as I looked around and noted that there was _more _Dwarfs in the house. " You have. . . baby shower?"

" You know, where we all come around with gifts and say how happy to see how big you have. . ." Bofur said as he placed his hand onto my now flat stomach. " Somethings missing."

" What happened?" Nori asked as he looked at me with his eyes as big as saucers.

" Oh well. . . I was going to send a message to you when I woke. . ." I said as I looked around and wrapped my robe on tightly to my body.

" What happened?" Fili asked as I spun around and came face to face with him as he looked down at me and shook his head. " No. How did it. . . when did this. . . were you even planning on telling me?" Fili asked as he looked to my stomach to my face with eyes full of rage.

" Fili will you please calm down, everything is fine-"

" Fine you say! You were not going to tell me that something has happened to my own son! He was not due for another two weeks! Ireth, please tell me, when did it happen?" He asked and all I could do was laugh.

" This is no laughing matter!" Nori said as he came around the corner.

" Yes, it is." Thorin said as he placed his hand around my shoulder. " The girl is now a mother. From the bonfire that is going on in the next house over, I would say that we are a little late for the celebration."

" My child came early." I stated with a smile as Fili's anger instantly washed away. " You are a father."

" Early. . . I- I'm a dad?" He asked with a smile as he wrapped his hands around my face. " I'm a dad!"

" Congrats Laddie!" Dwalin said with a smile as he gave me a hard pat on the back.

" I did most of the work here!" I said with a smile as I looked to Fili. " He looks like you, has your noise." I said with a smile as I moved my hand down the rim of his noise.

" Where is he then?!" Thorin asked and all I could do was smile.

" Well I thought that someone was breaking into my house here so I left him in the safest place that I could think of! My bed!" I said with a giggle as I took Fili by the hand and brought him up the stairs and I could hear the footsteps of the others following like small children.

The way that Fili looked down at his child as if it were made of gold made me smile as the others huddled around us in the small room that I had been in for the last few months. Fili did not want to hold Injros though, I think it is because he though that he would break the small child, so besides me, Thorin was the second person to be able to hold him and I could not believe how amazing it was at it. Cooing the baby as he cried because of being taking from his mothers grasp – which Fili did not like whatsoever, he went into like instant warrior mode and nearly took out his sword – and simply held the child and talked to him and rocked the baby with a smile as wide as the sun on his face. I could only sit back on my bed and smile as I watched the way that Thorin already held the child and the way that there was an instant connection between the king and the future heir to the thrown.

" Have you named him yet, Lassie?" Dwalin asked as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder, smiling to Fili who still had the awe-struck dad look on his face.

" Injros." I said as he looked to me with such confusion on my face that it made me smile. " The midnight star, no matter where you are, you are able to see it. Even on the worst of nights, it is seen. Very powerful star and _very _beautiful." I smiled as I looked to my child and nodded. " Very."

" Middle name?" Thorin asked as he turned to me for the first time.

" I- I really have not thought of that yet." I said as I looked to Fili. " I was thinking that maybe we could talk it over, or you could just do it, since I gave him the first name."

" Kili." He stated without even looking at me. " Injros Kili."  
" I like that." I smiled as I wrapped my hand into Fili's strong and calloused hand.

We all started to file out of the small bedroom and into the dinning area which they had made sure that there would be room for all of us and when Bilbo finally came back in we all laughed as he dropped most of the things that he was carrying. He had not been expecting visitors, let alone a dozen Dwarfs and a Wizard. When the gifts had all been opened and thank yous were said the Dwarfs all started to dig into the meals that they found in Bilbo's pantry, from what I heard it was the first time that they had been gladly welcomed to it with a nod and a wave, saying that he needed to go out to the market to get more anyway. When Injros finally made his way into his fathers arms – whether Fili liked it or not – I smiled as I lead him to the cool spring day that was outside. Flowers were just starting to pop from the ground below.

" I- I feel as if you should come live with me. Ireth, you know that I will love you will all of my heart and no I do not give a damn about what the others think about you and us. I- I need you in my life. Yes, it did take off of the things that have happened for me to realize that and I know that it must be a really horrible thing to say, but I need you now. And I think that you may still want me." I sighed as I turned my body away from him.

" I have been thinking about this a lot since I left the mountain." I said as I looked to the sky.

" You left without really saying goodbye. You just took your share and left. Did not even allow me to give you this." He said with his free hand as he lifted a ring to my view, it was beautiful with an emerald in the middle. " It was my mothers, her mothers before that. Great royalty had worn this ring. I know that we would have to wait a year, that your people have their own way of doing weddings and I do not care, I will wait a thousand years if that is what it takes for you to say that you will marry me. Ireth, be my queen, I love you with all of my heart and I hope that you still love me as well."

" I never stopped loving you." I whispered as I looked back to him. " I do not think that I could ever stop loving you."  
" Then lets start new and clean. We can live a new life with one anther. Wherever you please I will follow you. You, me, and our little Injros. We can live where you want. You as my queen." Fili whispered as he placed the ring into my hand.

" You really mean this?" I asked with a smile slowly forming on my face as I looked from my son to his father, the ring feeling weightless in my hand.

" I mean it with all of my heart. If you say yes one day you will bring our people together. The Elfs and Dwarfs will have someone to look for, someone to unite them. I should have seen that before. I love you with all of my heart and the last half a year has been hell without you in it, Ireth. I do not think that I could do another day without you in it. I do not even think that I could go another day without being able to place a kiss onto your lips." He said as he touched my face lightly.

" Fili!" I said as I wrapped my arms around his body and brought him in as close as I could while he still held our child and finally allowed our lips to meet with one another yet again.

" I love you with all of my heart." He said as I pulled him back in for another kiss. " I will love you till the day that I die and longer than that." He said and I rolled my eyes because all I wanted was to feel his lips. " My queen." He whispered through my lips as I smiled to him.

" Shut up, _my love_." I said in Elfish and I placed the ring onto my finger and smiled as I took the one that Thorin had given me that had been around my neck and placed it onto his finger. " Now we have given one another our rings. . . now we just have to go to Rivendell to tell my brother." I laughed as Fili looked honestly scared.

We could not wait the year to be married to one another though. So we broke another Elfish tradition of waiting a year to be married and told everyone that we were going with the Dwarven tradition of not caring when we got married. I got to wear a crown on my head as Fili did on his and surprisingly the people seemed to love me, they knew that I fought for them and I was one of the only people of_ any_ race to step up to the call of Thorin when he needed someone to go on a journey with him that would turn out to nearly take my life more than once, which they really seemed to look at with pride. Injros grew up in Erebor, which made Fili very happy.

Though I cannot say that we lived completely happily ever after – with the memories that were locked in our brains forever, the deaths that we all had to face, and even me giving up my immortality to live a mortal life with Fili and my son, who seemed to take up the Dwarven characteristics from what we could tell of mortality, or when he finally asked about his uncle and the only thing that Fili and I could do was stare at the child and I had to try with all of my might not to cry– I can say that we were close to happy. Yes, we had our ups and downs, the days that one of us barely wanted to get out of bed because of our war-memories, but we would get right back up from it as well. I do not think that I had ever seen Fili as happy as the moment that I told him that we were expecting our second child – a girl who we named Iris. Fili and I knew that it would never be the way that it had first been between us, though it did get a lot better, there was nothing that I regretted. And when the nights were clear enough, Fili and I would take Injros and his little sister out to the middle of no where, lay in the grass with him and Iris and sit and watch the stars, for hours, without saying a word.

When the children are older I will tell them how I was there when we finally took back the kingdom that we lived in now. How I fought side-by-side with our family to take back the land that had been striped from us. How they tried to tell me to stay back but I would not allow them to. I would tell them about the time where Elfs and Men finally came to the aid of Dwarf's. They will think that it is just a bedtime story for years. But one day, they will realize that their family is full of hero. In our culture, the true hero's get their energy placed into a star once they died. So I finally named a star for each hero in our life. The biggest and brightest star that we could find, Injros decided that one would be named Kili and so it was, the star Kili was created in the sky.

**The End**

**Author's Note: Hey guys! So what did you think about the story? Like it? I don't know what to write about now! If you have any suggestions on what on Middle-Earth I can write about now _please_ let me know. I'm kind of desperate. This has been my baby for the last month and I hope that you liked it but please help me come up with a new one!**


	27. Big News!

Hey guys so guess what? I'm starting a new story that will be coming up sometime next week! It's a KiliXOC fic that takes place around the time of The Hobbit. It's about Rolly Zeazal, a vampire who has a dark clock on her wrist that tells her the exact time that she will find her soul mate [ I found it off of Tumblr and I _needed _to use it somehow ]. But when she finds that it is not a vampire but instead Kili, she does not want to accept it fully. Find out what happens when she joins the company because she becomes a public enemy among her own people and brings new dangers to Thorin's company.


	28. Dark Clock

Hi guys! Sorry, I don't know what happened but almost a week ago I thought that I posted a notice on here that my new story was up if anyone was interested and I guess that it didn't get posted. So if you're still interested in my Hobbit stories, The Dark Clock is up and once again it's about Kili meeting his soul mate and the journey that they face together while also trying to reclaim the dwarfs home. Hope you like it, if you do than _please _review it and lemme know what you think!


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